GreenSpot's March 2006 Archives

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March 31, 2006

prison planet, infowars or aliens

The very best of sources? Master plan to rule the world, really? And why do I even bother? The very best of credibility. Ha!

Oh, I cannot ,go check it yourself, here.

Posted by jjtechno at 09:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 27, 2006

If we all get on the bus, will the Americans be happy?

The really sad part of all this is the small minority of folks, will say "They don't belong here, They are not Americans."

The three fingers pointing back at you have native american blood all over them.

The very same frightened group of racists get offended when you draw parallels between them and the nazi's. Go figure!?

Posted by jjtechno at 07:33 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 24, 2006

Clergy Letter Project

The Clergy letter Projectgot started about the time the idol worshipping thumpers lit off the "intelegent design" embarrasment. I just thougt it would be nice to highlight a group of christians who have thier brains still working.

Posted by jjtechno at 09:31 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

March 22, 2006

Iraq, why did we invade Iraq?

I just watched the video of bush talking to a white hose reporter. It was discusting, I hope somebody tells him NOT to answer unscripted questions. Perhaps you feel safer with this puppet in power, but I do not!
Watch the video for yourself.
Download file

Posted by jjtechno at 05:21 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

sad but comic

judgement
I thought this was right on the mark.

"conservative christian is an oxymoron."

Posted by jjtechno at 08:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 21, 2006

Drilling anywhere is risky

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4795866.stm
The link is to the BBC coverage. You might not have known about it . The administration does not want the public to see much of this. Probably effected a black out. Such is the nature of propaganda.
I included the Green Party press release in Extended Entry if you are interested.
It basically calls on washington to cease and desist this oil addictive nightmare and begin the conservation and developement of alternatives.
Of course at the rate the administration is going they will be on trial before the next election. Calling on the administration to begin conservation and esearch may be a moot issue.

Continue reading "Drilling anywhere is risky"

Posted by jjtechno at 09:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 20, 2006

Villians

Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm Villains tm

Its mine,its mine,its all mine!

Anybody know a cheap lawyer?

Posted by jjtechno at 05:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 17, 2006

Stay away from Walmart, we cannot afford them

Do not go to walmart, we cannot afford them. The low wages and lack of benefits force us the tax payer to foot thier bills.

Wal-Mart merely diverts sales from local businesses and then extracts that wealth from our communities, hauling it back to corporate headquarters.

Nor does Wal-Mart create jobs for local economies. Its stores employ fewer workers per dollar of sales than do the local retailers it displaces. Also, retail pay levels fall, for Wal-Mart lowers the local wage scale.

If you are looking for clean real organic food here in tennessee check out the links.
http://www.oxfam.org/
Crabtree Farms
Organic Foods

Organic food differs from conventionally produced food in the way it is grown, handled, and processed. Organic food is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations. Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides, fertilizers, bioengineering; or ionizing radiation. Before a product can be labeled "organic," a Government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards. Look for the USDA organic seal to ensure the produce you buy is organic.

http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M7484

http://www.grassorganic.com/

http://picktnproducts.org/food/vege.html
http://picktnproducts.org/food/organics.html

Dhamma Farm
Thomas O'Neal
6932 Walker Road
Signal Mountain, TN 37377 (HAMILTON County)

Phone: (423) 886-3373

Region: East
Summary & Additional Information

Certified organic produce includes tomatoes, blueberries, vegetables, and flowers.

Posted by jjtechno at 09:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 16, 2006

The Great Peacemaker

DEKANAHWIDEH (Deganawidah, the Heavenly Messenger), reputed founder of the Five Nations Confederacy, and the culture hero of the Iroquois.

The legend that grew up about him long served as a guide to Iroquois conduct, at home and abroad. In its various recorded versions it now appears a strange medley of religion, mythology, constitutional law, wisdom literature, animal lore, and folk custom. But the core of the narrative, which describes the practical steps taken by Dekanahwideh, the “Heavenly Messenger,” to establish a firm League of Nations under the Tree of Peace, has a grandeur of conception unsurpassed in popular tradition anywhere in the world.

According to the legend, Dekanahwideh was born among the Huron Indians near the Bay of Quinte, on what is now the Thayendanaga or Deseronto Reservation. His virgin mother had been informed in a dream by a messenger from the Creator that she was to bear a son destined to plant the Tree of Peace at Onondaga (Syracuse, New York).

When the child was born, he was named Dekanahwideh. On reaching manhood, he explained to his mother the mission on which the Great Spirit had sent him, which was to bring “the good news of peace and power” to men: to show them how to make their desire for peace and justice effective by union under civil authority backed by military potential. When the time came to say farewell, he took his mother to a tree on a hill near the water and instructed her to come there once a year after his departure and strike the tree with a hatchet. If blood flowed from the cut, she would know that he had failed; if sap, that he was alive and successful. The hill is still held in reverence by the Iroquois people. Chiefs from the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario, visit it at least once a year to burn sacred tobacco and offer prayer to the Great Spirit.

Crossing Lake Ontario in a canoe made of white stone (his first miracle), Dekanahwideh came to the country of the Onondagas. There he sought out a notorious murderer and cannibal, resolved to make this encounter the first test of his power. Finding the man’s cabin empty, Dekanahwideh climbed to the bark roof and, lying prone, peered down through the smoke hole. Below him he saw a kettle of water on the fire. When the Onondaga warrior returned to his cabin and looked into the kettle, he saw a reflection of Dekanahwideh’s face. Since no one else was in the cabin, the warrior thought it was a reflection of his own face; and he was struck by the contrast between the brutal life he was leading and the strong, gentle nobility of the face looking up at him out of the water. In revulsion, he emptied the kettle of its human contents and sat brooding by the fire over his failure to live up to what he now recognized to be his own true nature. When Dekanahwideh entered the cabin and delivered his message of peace and power, the warrior eagerly “tookhold,” offering himself as a disciple. Together the two laid plans for a campaign to bring neighbouring nations into a peaceful confederacy, with the intent that, as a 17th-century Iroquois was to say, “The land shall be beautiful, the river shall have no more waves, one may go everywhere without fear.” The great obstacle to such a union was Atotarho, head chief of the Onondagas, a hideous tyrant whose body had seven crooks in it and whose hair was a tangle of live snakes. “You shall be called Hiawatha [He Who Combs],” said Dekanahwideh to his disciple, “for you shall comb the snakes out of Atotarho’s hair.”

Hiawatha (from whom Longfellow took little but the name) served as Dekanahwideh’s spokesman. Some such arrangement appears to have been necessary, for, if the late William Dewaserage Loft of Ohsweken was correct, the name “Dekenahwideh” means “double row of teeth.”

The two men separated for a time, Dekanahwideh going alone to the Canienga or Flint Nation (Mohawk). There the message of peace and power won many adherents, but sceptics demanded a sign. To satisfy them, Dekanahwideh climbed a tall tree on the edge of a cliff over-looking the Mohawk River. He instructed them to cut the tree down so that it would fall with him into the rapids. If he survived, they would know that his words were true. Having cut down the tree as directed, the Mohawks waited long on the bank, hoping to see cause to believe in him; but, as time passed and he did not reappear, they returned sadly to their village. Early next morning, a curl of smoke was seen on the bank where Dekanahwideh had fallen, and the Heavenly Messenger was observed sitting quietly beside his fire eating breakfast. The Mohawks reassembled, took hold of his message, and have forever since ranked as founders of the Iroquois Confederacy.

Hiawatha joined him here and the two were adopted into the Mohawk nation. Heading a band of Mohawk warriors and singing the peace hymn – “To the Great Peace bring we greeting . . .” which ranks as the Iroquois national anthem – they proceeded west to the country of the Oneidas. These good friends of the Mohawks quickly took hold and joined the marching train. By-passing the Onondagas, who were terrorized by Atotarho, they went on to the Cayugas, who joined them, and all entered the Seneca country.

Here they found division, one party among the Senecas accepting but another rejecting the “good news.” Dekanahwideh was constrained to perform another miracle. At his command, according to one version of the legend, “the sun went out and it was complete darkness.” That sign was sufficient, and the dissident Senecas took hold.

Then the warriors of the four nations advanced on Atotarho in his “bulrush swale” near the shore of Onondaga Lake. Modern Indians locate the site on what is now the campus of Syracuse University. The threat of visible power, sweetened by the offer of the head-chiefship of the united nations if he would come in, brought Atotarho to reason, and Hiawatha combed the snakes out of his hair.

Thereupon Dekanahwideh “planted the Tree of Peace”: a great white pine with “white [healthy] roots” extending to the four quarters of the earth in order to guide men everywhere who desired to trace peace to its source. Above the tree, he placed the “eagle that sees afar, symbol of military preparedness, to spy out danger. Under it he opened a cavern into which he threw the weapons of war. He put antlers on the heads of 50 chiefs representing the Five Nations (their names to become titles for the chiefs who succeeded them), and delivered to them the words of the “great law” – the constitution of the Five Nations.

His work accomplished, Dekanahwideh took leave of his people, instructing them to bring in other nations to sit with them under the Tree of Peace. He admonished the chiefs to exercise patience: “Your skins must be seven thumbs thick to withstand the darts of your enemies.” He encouraged them to stand fast should evil days come upon them. If a high wind (war) should uproot the Tree of Peace, they were to look about for a great swamp elm and re-form the confederacy under its shelter. (After the Revolutionary War they found such an elm on the banks of the Grand River in Ontario.) If they ever found the league in extreme danger, he said, “Call on my name in the bushes and I will return.” Today this last promise is much in Iroquois minds. Several times in the present century the chiefs have seriously debated whether the time had come to call on his name in the bushes.

At Deseronto, Ontario, the Mohawks have erected a stone monument on which are inscribed the traditional words of the founder: “I am Deganawidah, and with the Five Nations’ Confederate lords I plant the Tree of the Great Peace . . .”

But the best monument to Dekanahwideh is the Six Nations Reserve by the Grand River. There the ancient forms of the league are still preserved. There the matrons nominate the chiefs, who are installed with the solemn rites instituted, it is traditionally believed, by Dekanahwideh. On such occasions, old nostalgic chants are heard: “Hail. my grandsires! Now hearken while your grandchildren cry mournfully to you – because the Great League which you established has grown old . . . You have it as a pillow under your heads in the ground where you are lying . . . although you said that far away in the future the Great League would endure.”

The confederacy is officially known as Kayanerenh-kowa (the Great Peace), a term which describes its function. It is also known as Kanonsionni (the Long-house), a term that describes both its geographical extent and its constitutional form. The long-house, typical Iroquois dwelling built of saplings and bark, was in shape not unlike a modern Pullman car but 80 to 100 or more feet in length. Several families of the same lineage occupied it, each within its own bark-partitioned apartment and with its own hearth fire, but all under the superintendence of an elder matron of the lineage.

So the Five Nations – Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas – stretched west along a war-path or ambassadors’ road that extended through the Mohawk Valley and the Finger Lakes region; and so also each nation retained its sovereignty while at the same time joining its neighbours in giving a measure of authority to the Great Council at Onondaga, where chiefs of the Five Nations met to discuss their problems round “the fire that never dies.” The sense of unity among these fiercely independent peoples was fostered by many ingenious devices, not least of which was the legend of Dekanahwideh and the sense of mission it evoked.

Women were highly honoured in Iroquois life, their status being in no way inferior to that of men. Not only was descent reckoned in the female line, but matrons of those lineages holding chiefly titles had power both to appoint the civil chiefs and, if these failed in their duty, to recall them – always, however, after consultation with the incumbent chiefs as well as with the “warriors and women,” that is, the general public.

Although these and many other details of the social and political organization of the Five Nations are traditionally attributed to Dekanahwideh, it is probable that his function was. not so much to create new laws as to codify existing customs among the several nations and provide a final stimulus for union.

That the league is very old can hardly be disputed. Benjamin Franklin in 1750 wrote that “it has subsisted ages and appears indissoluble.” In 1654 the Jesuit missionary Le Mercier noted in his Relation (JR (Thwaites), XLI, 87) that it had been in existence de tout temps, “from the earliest times.” But the date of the founding is a subject of debate. There is evidence that the final union was the culmination of a long process of consolidation marked by a series of local confederacies – of Mohawk with Oneida and Seneca with Cayuga. Horatio Hale, a Canadian scholar who was at home among the Iroquois on the Six Nations Reserve as well as at Onondaga and who published The Iroquois book of rites in 1883, came to the conclusion that the union was completed “about the middle of the fifteenth century.” The fact that, according to astronomical calculation (see Theodor von Oppolzer’s Canon der Finsternisse (Vienna, 1887)), a total eclipse of the sun was visible in the Seneca country in 1451 (cf. Dekanahwideh’s blotting out of the sun) is a curious coincidence if it is nothing more.

Posted by jjtechno at 07:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Green in a nutshell

Ten Values of the Green Party
1. GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY

Every human being deserves a say in the decisions that affect his or her life and should not be subject to the will of another. Therefore, we will work to increase public participation at every level of government and to ensure that our public representatives are fully accountable to the people who elect them. We will also work to create new types of political organizations which expand the process of participatory democracy by directly including citizens in the decision-making process.

2. SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

All persons should have the rights and opportunity to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment. We must consciously confront in ourselves, our organizations, and society at large, barriers such as racism and class oppression, sexism and homophobia, ageism and disability, which act to deny fair treatment and equal justice under the law.

3. ECOLOGICAL WISDOM

Human societies must operate with the understanding that we are part of nature, not separate from nature.
We must maintain an ecological balance and live within the ecological and resource limits of our communities and our planet. We support a sustainable society which utilizes resources in such a way that future generations will benefit and not suffer from the practices of our generation. To this end we must practice agriculture which replenishes the soil; move to an energy efficient economy; and live in ways that respect the integrity of natural systems.

4. NON-VIOLENCE

It is essential that we develop effective alternatives to society's current patterns of violence. We will work to demilitarize, and eliminate weapons of mass destruction, without being naive about the intentions of other governments.
We recognize the need for self-defense and the defense of others who are in helpless situations. We promote non-violent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree, and will guide our actions toward lasting personal, community and global peace.

5. DECENTRALIZATION

Centralization of wealth and power contributes to social and economic injustice, environmental destruction, and militarization. Therefore, we support a restructuring of social, political and economic institutions away from a system which is controlled by and mostly benefits the powerful few, to a democratic, less bureaucratic system. Decision-making should, as much as possible, remain at the individual and local level, while assuring that civil rights are protected for all citizens.

6. COMMUNITY BASED ECONOMICS

Redesign our work structures to encourage employee ownership and workplace democracy. Develop new economic activities and institutions that will allow us to use our new technologies in ways that are humane, freeing, ecological and accountable, and responsive to communities.
Establish some form of basic economic security, open to all.
Move beyond the narrow "job ethic" to new definitions of "work," jobs" and "income" that reflect the changing economy.
Restructure our patterns of income distribution to reflect the wealth created by those outside the formal monetary economy: those who take responsibility for parenting, housekeeping, home gardens, community volunteer work, etc.
Restrict the size and concentrated power of corporations without discouraging superior efficiency or technological innovation.

7. FEMINISM AND GENDER EQUITY

We have inherited a social system based on male domination of politics and economics. We call for the replacement of the cultural ethics of domination and control with more cooperative ways of interacting that respect differences of opinion and gender. Human values such as equity between the sexes, interpersonal responsibility, and honesty must be developed with moral conscience. We should remember that the process that determines our decisions and actions is just as important as achieving the outcome we want.

8. RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY

We believe it is important to value cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity, and to promote the development of respectful relationships across these lines.
We believe that the many diverse elements of society should be reflected in our organizations and decision-making bodies, and we support the leadership of people who have been traditionally closed out of leadership roles. We acknowledge and encourage respect for other life forms than our own and the preservation of biodiversity.

9. PERSONAL AND GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY

We encourage individuals to act to improve their personal well-being and, at the same time, to enhance ecological balance and social harmony. We seek to join with people and organizations around the world to foster peace, economic justice, and the health of the planet.

10. FUTURE FOCUS AND SUSTAINABILITY

Our actions and policies should be motivated by long-term goals. We seek to protect valuable natural resources, safely disposing of or "unmaking" all waste we create, while developing a sustainable economics that does not depend on continual expansion for survival. We must counterbalance the drive for short-term profits by assuring that economic development, new technologies, and fiscal policies are responsible to future generations who will inherit the results of our actions.
Make the quality of life, rather than open-ended economic growth, the focus of future thinking.

Posted by jjtechno at 02:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 14, 2006

life statistics, abortion

Who has abortions? The current numbers that we know as of 2003.
Kind of make one wonder why state and federal sex education funds are being reduced at the same time the pro-death crowds are calling for bans?

* At current rates, about 1 in 3 U.S. women will have had an abortion by the time they reach the age of 45.
* 54% of women seeking abortions experienced contraceptive failure.
* 61% of women who have abortions have had at least one previous birth and 48% of have had at least one prior abortion.
* 27% of women who have abortions and are open to disclosing their religion are Catholic and 43% are Protestants.
* 41% of U.S. abortions are obtained by non-Hispanic white women, 32% of all abortions are obtained by non-Hispanic Black women, 20% by Hispanic women, and 7% are obtained by other women of color.
* 19% of women receiving abortions are 15 - 19 years old; 56% are between 20-30 years of age.
* 57% of women who obtain abortions have family incomes under 200% of the poverty line. Low-income women are three times more likely to have abortions than those who are financially better off.
* About 16,000 women have abortions each year following an incident of rape or incest.
* 61% of minors who have abortions do so with at least one parent's knowledge. The great majority of parents support their daughter's decision to have an abortion.

Sources:

1 "State Facts about Abortion: 2003," Alan Guttmacher Institute.

2 "Facts in Brief: Induced Abortion in the United States, 2003," Alan Guttmacher Institute.

3 "Overview of Abortion in the U.S., 2003," Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health and the Alan Guttmacher Institute.

4 "Fact Sheet: Women Who Have Had Abortions," National Abortion Federation, 1997.

Statistics complied May 2003

Posted by jjtechno at 03:01 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

March 12, 2006

Enjoy! by Gary Trudeau

Ok I would be remiss if I did not share this Doonesbury cartoon.

Posted by jjtechno at 09:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Laugh?

What to Do When the Emperor Has No Clothes
by Garrison Keillor

These are troubling times for all of us who love this country, as surely we all do, even the satirists. You may poke fun at your mother, but if she is belittled by others it burns your bacon. A blowhard French journalist writes a book about America that is full of arrogant stupidity, and you want to let the air out of him and mail him home flat. And then you read the paper and realize the country is led by a man who isn't paying attention, and you hope that somebody will poke him. Or put a sign on his desk that says, "Try much harder."

Do we need to impeach him to bring some focus to this man's life? The Feb. 27 issue of The New Yorker carries an article by Jane Mayer about a loyal conservative Republican and U.S. Navy lawyer, Albert Mora, and his resistance to the torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. From within the Pentagon bureaucracy, he did battle against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and John Yoo, who then was at the Justice Department, and shadowy figures taking orders from Vice President Dick "Gunner" Cheney, arguing America had ratified the Geneva Convention that forbids cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of prisoners, and so it has the force of law. They seemed to be arguing that President Bush has the right to order prisoners to be tortured.

One such prisoner, Mohamed al-Qahtani, was held naked in isolation under bright lights for months, threatened by dogs, subjected to unbearable noise volumes and otherwise abused, so that he begged to be allowed to kill himself. When the Senate approved the Torture Convention in 1994, it defined torture as an act "specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering."

Is the law a law or is it a piece of toast?

Wiretap surveillance of Americans without a warrant? Great. Go for it. How about turning over American ports to a country more closely tied to Sept. 11, 2001, than Saddam Hussein was? Fine by me. No problem. And what about the war in Iraq? Hey, you're doing a heck of a job. No need to tweak a thing. And your blue button-down shirt--it's you.

But torture is something else. Most people agree with this, and in a democracy that puts the torturers in a delicate position. They must make sure to destroy their e-mails and have subordinates who will take the fall. Because it is impossible to keep torture secret. It goes against the American grain and it eats at the conscience of even the most disciplined, and in the end the truth will come out. It is coming out now.

Our adventure in Iraq, at a cost of billions, has brought that country to the verge of civil war while earning us more enemies than ever before. And tax money earmarked for security is being dumped into pork-barrel projects anywhere somebody wants their own SWAT team. Detonation of a nuclear bomb within our borders--pick any big city--is a real possibility, as much so now as five years ago. Meanwhile, many Democrats have conceded the very subject of security and positioned themselves as Guardians of Our Forests and Benefactors of Waifs and Owls, neglecting the most basic job of government, which is to defend this country. The peaceful lagoon that is the White House is designed for the comfort of a vulnerable man. Perfectly understandable, but not what is needed now. The U.S. Constitution provides a simple, ultimate way to hold him to account for war crimes and the failure to attend to the country's defense. Impeach him and let the Senate hear the evidence.

Garrison Keillor is an author and the radio host of "A Prairie Home Companion."

Common dreams

Posted by jjtechno at 08:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Tennessee river too?

Death of the World's Rivers
Disaster warning from UN as investigation reveals half of the planet's 500 biggest rivers are seriously depleted or polluted
by Geoffrey Lean

The world's great rivers are drying up at an alarming rate, with devastating consequences for humanity, animals and the future of the planet.

The Independent on Sunday can today reveal that more than half the world's 500 mightiest rivers have been seriously depleted. Some have been reduced to a trickle in what the United Nations will this week warn is a "disaster in the making".

From the Nile to China's Yellow River, some of the world's great water systems are now under such pressure that they often fail to deposit their water in the ocean or are interrupted in the course to the sea, with grave consequences for the planet.

Adding to the disaster, all of the 20 longer rivers are being disrupted by big dams. One-fifth of all freshwater fish species either face extinction or are already extinct.

The Nile and Pakistan's Indus are greatly reduced by the time they reach the sea. Some, such as the Colorado and China's Yellow River, now rarely reach the ocean at all. Others, such as the Jordan and the Rio Grande on the US-Mexico border, are dry for much of their length.

Even in Britain, a quarter of the country's 160 chalk rivers and steams - such as the Kennet in Wiltshire, the Darent in Kent, and the Wylye in Wiltshire - are running out of water because too much is being abstracted for homes, industry and agriculture.

This week an influential UN report will officially warn the world's governments of an "alarming deterioration" in the planet's rivers, lakes and other freshwater systems. Klaus Toepfer, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, told the IoS yesterday that the state of the world's rivers is "a disaster in the making".

The UN's triennial World Water Development Report, compiled for an international conference in Mexico City which opens on Thursday, warns that "we have hugely changed the natural order of rivers worldwide", mainly through giant dams and global warming. Some 45,000 big dams now block the world's rivers, trapping 15 per cent of all the water that used to flow from the land to the sea. Reservoirs now cover almost 1 per cent of land surface.

The UN report says that demand for them "will continue to increase", but recommends that they should be barred from the world's remaining, undammed "free-flowing" rivers.

The United States has dismantled 465 dams in recent years, mainly for environmental reasons. But last week, in an abrupt U-turn, it signalled that it was about to embark on its biggest dam-building campaign in decades, when the Washington State legislature passed a bill to allow the federal government to build a series of dams on the Columbia, the West's largest river.

Global warming is endangering even the rivers that have largely escaped damming.

The relatively untamed Amazon was hit by its most serious drought on record last autumn. And salmon are dying in Alaska's Yukon River - the world's longest undammed watercourse - because its waters are getting too hot.

On Tuesday an international day of action will see demonstrations across the globe to draw attention to rivers' plight.

Posted by jjtechno at 08:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Let the stoning begin

Rewritng the genetic code one GCUA at a time!
Sex is such a dirty thing!
Maybe if we stone them they will change their biology.

On Wednesday 18 January 2006 the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria approved a bill for an Act prohibiting marriages between people of the same sex. The Bill also prohibits the public show of same sex amorous relationships. Any person involved in the registration of gay clubs, societies and organizations in private is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a term of 5 years imprisonment. The bill received the support of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion).

More acts of christian understanding and tolerance.

Posted by jjtechno at 05:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 10, 2006

The Jews and Muslims get it , wonder if Christianity gets it?

The jews get it. the torah spells it clearly , cleanly. Even the holiest among us must live by the rules the rest of live by. Else he is looked down on and scorned.
The jews get it, the muslims get it. The christians? well some get it and some don't.
So much for our leaders!

"Rabbi's Notebook Parshas Titzaveh & Purim 5766

This Shabbos, the 13th of Adar, is the 20th Yurtzeit of my Grandfather
Zt’l. He was born on Adar 7, 1895 and was nifter Adar 13 1986. In honor of
the Yurtzeit the following is a translation of a seminal essay published
in the introduction to his sefer Darash Moshe.

“It is important to understand the name Purim which is derived from the
term Pur – lottery. The name of a holiday should reveal the essence of the
miracle which the holiday celebrates; however, the fact that Haman used a
lottery to determine the date for destroying the Jews does not appear to
be the essence of the miracle of Purim. Furthermore, the Gemara in Megilah
13b states that Haman rejoiced when the lottery (Pur) fell on Adar because
Moshe Rabbeinu had died in Adar. (Haman thought the death of Moshe was a
bad omen for the Jews) However, what Haman did not know is that Moshe was
also born in Adar. This needs to be explained. (How is it that Haman knew
the date of Moshe’s death but did not know the date of his birth?)

It appears to me that because of the false beliefs of the other nations
there are certain individuals who they (the other nations) consider holy.
(Meaning, that the criteria they use to determine holiness is founded on
false values and premises.) Because these individuals are considered holy
they dress in special clothes, and are subject to other restrictions
unique to their holiness. These restrictions are of course invented by the
people themselves and therefore false; however, they are also potentially
destructive.

Common folk, the masses, the followers, look to those whom they consider
holy as role models of godliness and morality. However, they also believe
that the affected mannerisms and restrictions of the holy individuals are
a reflection of their holiness. (Judaism believes that restrictions are
aids to attaining holiness.) On the other hand, they themselves, the
common folk, the masses, the followers, have no obligation to act
accordingly. Instead, they consider themselves as any other living
creature, able to do whatever their hearts desire. They feel no obligation
to emulate the individuals they consider holy.

Moreover, if one of their holy people is evil the common folk learn from
him that it is ok to be evil. They do not have a value system beyond the
words and actions of their priests that by contrast allows the common folk
to judge the priests themselves. Their entire value system depends on the
priest’s determination of what is right and wrong. As a result, the
priests will change the rules and values of the religion to suit their own
needs and desires.

The Torah on the other hand stated that there is but one law for all and
that intrinsically there is no one person more holy than another except in
regard to Torah scholarship,character, and behavior.

All of humanity, including Moshe Rabbeinu, were born through the process
of birth - the product of a man and a woman – a mother and a father. As
such, Moshe and every other person have the same basic needs and there are
no laws that are incumbent on one person more so than another. The
greatest person and the simplest person are absolutely equal to each other
in so far as the basic values are concerned. Therefore, the simplest
person is able to observe the greater person and learn from him what their
own potential and obligations are. They know that if they also devote
themselves to studying Torah and working on their characters they too can
be as great as the greatest and holiest person. They understand that even
the greatest person started as a simple person like themselves. If he or
she could do it so can they!

We now understand why the Torah always uses the term “Tisah – lift up”
when commanding a census to be taken. Many people fall into the trap of a
false humility in regard to their own potential to attain personal
greatness. They believe that they are incapable of studying Torah or
exerting the necessary discipline to be great and holy. This results in
their not studying Torah and not attempting to grow in character and
spirituality. However, the Torah states that when counting the Jewsih
nation they are to be “lifted.” Whether a person is as great as Moshe or
the simplest of the simple, each of them is only counted as one. Each of
them is only as valuable as the other. As such, the census teaches all
that they can be as great as each other – but only if they desire the
greatness – only if they are willing to work at being great. It “lifts”
them up by encouraging their inherent greatness and holiness. This is also
evident in the fact that a minyan – a community is comprised of ten
adults, regardless of their individual greatness or lack there of. Each
member knows that he is valuable and capable of greatness. In fact, they
should be jealous of each other’s greatness and therefore motivated to
work at being greater and holier.

There is another benefit to realizing that each of us is inherently equal
and that greatness is the product of individual effort and the potential
of all. It is clear that greatness is the result of devotion to a set of
laws and values that are not determined by any one individual or group.
Instead, the values and laws are the determination of a force above and
beyond any one person or even generation. As such, everyone knows that a
person who has gained the reputation of greatness and holiness is as
subject to the laws and values as anyone else. If he should falter or fail
in his personal behavior it is himself who he has failed and compromised
not the truth of the values and laws. He looses his standing of greatness
and holiness and the common folk will look down upon him. The Torah
remains unscathed by his personal failings.

I heard a similar approach to this concept from Hagaon Rav Yechezkel
Abramsky Shlita (Zt’l). Rav Abramsky wondered why Haman first wanted to
kill Mordecai and only later did he want to kill all the Jews when he was
told that the Jews were the “nation of Mordecai.” Haman certainly knew
that Mordecai was a Jew and if his desire was to kill the nation of
Mordecai along with Mordecai why didn’t he say so from the start? Rav
Abramsky answered that Haman always knew that the Jews were Mordecai’s
nation; however, he believed that if he could get Mordecai to bow down to
him all the Jews would follow suit and bow down to him as well. Mordecai
was the Gadol Hador (leader of the generation) and what he would do
everyone else would also do! However, when Haman was told that the nation
of Mordecai was the “Jews” it meant that different than any other nation
the Jews held their leadership to the same standards as everyone else.
What was false for one was false for all and what anyone did, even the
Gadol Hador, would not change that standard! Haman then knew that even if
he managed to get Mordecai to bow down to him the rest of the Jews would
not follow suit; instead; they would degrade and despise their "leader"
rather than follow him because the Torah is the standard for everyone – no
matter how great or little! Therefore, Haman decided to kill all the Jews!

We can now understand why Haman rejoiced when the Pur – lottery fell on
the month of Adar. He knew that Moshe died in the Adar and assumed that
with his death the Jewish commitment to the Torah was forever weakened. He
assumed that our commitment to Torah and Mitzvos was because of the person
Moshe and not because every Jew has a personal sense of commitment and
obligation. As such, the death of Moshe meant that the subsequent
commitment to Torah and mitzvos was more the product of tradition and
custom than personal belief and obligation. He felt that the “luck of the
draw” being Adar indicated that he would be victorious in destroying the
Jews whose commitment was to culture and history rather than G-d. However,
the opposite was true!

The Gemara in Megilah tells us that although Haman knew that Moshe died in
Adar he did not know that Moshe was born in Adar. Of course, if Haman knew
that Moshe had died he also knew that Moshe was born in Adar; however,
what he did not know is the significance of the fact that Moshe had been
born in Adar! The fact that Moshe died also meant that he had been born.
If Moshe had been some mystical figure deposited on earth without the
benefit of the normal natural process of birth then he would not have died
either! Instead, the fact that he died proved that he was no different
than any other human of flesh and blood. He was born, he lived, and he
died. The difference being that in the interim between birth and death
Moshe worked on himself to become the holy person he became. He became the
person to bring Torah to the world and to become the greatest of all
prophets. His death proved that he was just a person and if he could
become the man he became then it was possible for each of us to do the
same! That doesn’t mean that anyone else will ever attain Moshe’s
greatness. His greatness was unique to him and his mission just as each of
us has a greatness that is unique to us and our mission. Instead of
Moshe’s death weakening the Jew’s commitment to Torah and mitzvos it had
the opposite effect. Everyone realized that with Moshe’s death the
obligation to study and attain greatness, the responsibility for teaching
G-d’s word and exemplifying the meaning of service and commitment was
incumbent upon each and everyone.

Therefore, the truth of Torah was unaffected by Moshe’s death. Haman
mistakenly thought that the lottery falling on the month of Adar foretold
his eventual success against Mordecai and his nation because it
underscored their weakness rather than strength. However, the opposite was
true. The fact that each of us must shoulder the responsibility for
spreading the word of G-d from generation to generation has strengthened
us and provided for our continued scholarship in Torah and commitment to
doing mitzvos. Because Moshe was just a human, being born and dying, we
knew that survival did not depend on Moshe the man. We have survived the
destruction of our temples, the exile and dispersion of our people, and
the millennia of persecution because we are committed to studying the
Torah and perfecting our performance of mitzvos. More than anything else
it has provided us with the ability to remain a nation regardless of time
and distance from each other. As such, it is impossible to destroy us. We
are as eternal as the Torah as ever-present as history itself.

The name Purim comes from Pur which means “lottery.” In the end, it was
the fact that Haman’s lottery fell out on Adar that strengthened our
resolve to survive by providing the understanding that the miracle of our
survival and the destiny of our people is as eternal as the Torah. So long
as we study G-d’s word and commit ourselves to doing His will we will
merit the continued destruction of Amalek’s evil and the coming of
Mashiach.

Maftir Zachor

This week, in addition to the regular Parsha, we read Parshas Zachor.
Parshas Zachor is the 2nd of the four special Shabbosim preceding Pesach
when additional portions are read from the Torah. The first special
Shabbos was Parshas Shekalim. This week we read Zachor, and in a few weeks
we will read Parah and Chodesh. There are set rules which determine when
each of these additional Parshios is to be read. Parshas Zachor is always
read on the Shabbos before Purim.

On Parshas Zachor, we read the additional Parsha found in Divarim, 25:17.
As a nation, we were commanded to destroy the nation of Amalek. This
nation came into existence at the same time as we did. Eisav's son Elifaz
had a son Amalek. Eisav and Elifaz's legacy to Amalek was an undying
hatred against the children of Yakov.

At the time of the exodus from Egypt, Amalek traveled hundreds of miles to
ambush the newly freed nation in the hope of destroying them. We, as a
nation, did not pose any threat to their sovereignty. They lived to the
east of Canaan and were not among the Seven Nations occupying Eretz
Yisroel. Nevertheless, their irrational hatred against Hashem and us
compelled them to attack a harmless and seemingly defenseless nation. In
the aftermath of their attack we were commanded to always remember the
evil that is Amalek. It is the reading of this Parsha that is the
fulfillment of this Biblical commandment. This mitzvah, according to most
authorities, is not restricted by time and must be fulfilled by men and
woman."

Posted by jjtechno at 01:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 09, 2006

zack wamp bought and paid for,or the sellout for frankenfood

The list you see is the group of lobbyist that screwed the public thanks to zack wamp. The national food uniformity act zack shoved down our throats.Bought and paid for by every comapny that has to tell you what is in the food we eat. Or not! Thanks for screwing us again zack." So whats your poison", takes on a real new meaning. I urge you, implore you get this liar out of office before he sells anymore of us down the river(or should that be,"to the highest contributor!"
What you do not see in the list of supporters is a single legitimate public health organization! Not one!

bad bad news
bad news
news
more news

Ahold
Alabama Beverage Association
Albertson’s
American Bakers Association
American Beverage Association
American Feed Industry Association
American Frozen Food Institute
American Plastics Council
American Spice Trade Association
Animal Health Institute
American Meat Institute
Apple Products Research and Education Council
Arizona Beverage Association
Association for Dressings and Sauces
Biscuit and Cracker Manufacturers Association
Bush Brothers & Company
Business Roundtable
Cadbury Schweppes plc
California Farm Bureau Federation
California Grocers Association
California League of Food Processors
California Manufacturers and Technology Association
California-Nevada Soft Drink Association
California Restaurant Association
Calorie Control Council
Campbell Soup Company
Cargill, Incorporated
Carolinas Food Industry Council
Chocolate Manufacturers Association
The Coca-Cola Company
Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc.
Colorado Beverage Association
ConAgra Foods, Inc.
Connecticut Pepsi-Cola Bottlers Association
Council for Citizens Against Government Waste
Dean Foods Company
Del Monte Foods
Diamond Foods, Inc.
Dairy Institute of California
Flavor & Extract Manufacturers Association
Flowers Foods, Inc.
Frozen Potato Products Institute
Food Marketing Institute
Food Products Association
Frito-Lay
General Mills, Inc.
Gerber Products Company
Glass Packaging Institute
Godiva Chocolatier Inc.
Grain Foods Foundation
Grocery Manufacturers Association
H.J. Heinz Company
The Hershey Company
Hoffmann-La Roche Inc.
Hormel Foods Corporation
Independent Bakers Association
Institute of Shortening and Edible Oils
International Association of Color Manufacturers
International Bottled Water Association
International Dairy Foods Association
International Food Additives Council
International Foodservice Distributors Association
International Formula Council
International Ice Cream Association
International Jelly and Preserves Association
The J.M. Smucker Company
Jewel-Osco
Kansas Beverage Association
Kellogg Company
Kentucky Beverage Association
Kraft Foods Inc.
Lance, Inc.
Land O’ Lakes, Inc.
Maine Potato Board
Maryland, Delaware, DC Beverage Association
Massachusetts Beverage Association
Masterfoods USA
McCormick & Company, Inc.
McKee Foods Corporation
Michigan Beverage Association
Milk Industry Foundation
Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce
Minnesota Beverage Association
The Minute Maid Company
Montana Beverage Association
National Association of Convenience Stores
National Association of Manufacturers
National Association of Margarine Manufacturers
National Association of Wheat Growers
National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
National Cheese Institute
National Chicken Council
National Coffee Association of USA
National Confectioners Association
National Council of Farmer Cooperatives
National Fisheries Institute
National Frozen Pizza Institute
National Grape Cooperative Association
National Grocers Association
Northern Plains Potato Growers Association
National Institute of Oilseed Products
National Milk Producers Federation
National Pasta Association
National Pecan Shellers Association
National Pork Producers Council
National Potato Council
National Restaurant Association
National Turkey Federation
Nestle USA
New Jersey Beverage Association
New York State Bottlers Association
North American Millers’ Association
North Carolina Beverage Association
North Carolina Coalition of Business and Industry
North Carolina Retail Merchants Association
Ohio Soft Drink Association
Oregon Soft Drink Association
Osco Drug
O-I
Peanut and Tree Nut Processors Association
Pennsylvania Soft Drink Association
Pepperidge Farm Incorporated
PepsiCo, Inc.
Pickle Packers’ International
The Procter & Gamble Company
Quaker Oats
Rich Products Corporation
Rich SeaPak Corporation
Safeway
St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce
Sara Lee Corporation
Sav-on Drugs
The Schwan Food Company
Snack Food Association
Society of Glass and Ceramics Decorators
South Carolina Retail Merchants Association
SUPERVALU INC.
Target Corporation
Tortilla Industry Association
Tropicana
Twin West Chamber of Commerce
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Unilever
United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association
Vinegar Institute
Washington State Beverage Association
Welch Foods, Inc.
Winn-Dixie
Wisconsin Beverage Association
Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company
Yoplait

Posted by jjtechno at 10:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Interesting Paper Trivia

The Spread of Papermaking in Europe

From Samarkand,India papermaking spread to Baghdad in the 8th century AD and into Damascus, Egypt, and Morocco by the 10th century. Many Chinese materials were not available to Middle Eastern papermakers, who instead used flax and other substitute fibers, as well as a human-powered triphammer to prepare the pulp.

It took nearly 500 years for papermaking to reach Europe from Samarkand. Although the export of paper from the Middle East to Byzantium and other parts of Europe began in the 10th and 11th centuries, the craft was apparently not established in Spain and Italy until the 12th century. Early paper was at first disfavored by the Christian world as a manifestation of Moslem culture, and a 1221 decree from Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II declared all official documents written on paper to be invalid. (The interests of wealthy European landowners in sheep and cattle for parchment and vellum may also have exerted some influence.) The rise of the printing press in the mid 1400's, however, soon changed European attitudes toward paper.
paper museum

Paper Mache

Posted by jjtechno at 02:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What it must mean to be a republicrat?

Zack Bill Lamar just wanted to say THANKS!
I feel safer already.

Posted by jjtechno at 10:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 08, 2006

Personhood and the 14th amendment

Even if you take the wiki with a grain of salt (please verify, verify, verify)
It just makes for some interesting reading.

Corporate Personhood

Interesting poster?

Posted by jjtechno at 08:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wage peace

I couldn't help myself. I am appalled at what is being done in our name in Iraq, every day another horror story.
It is a poem called:
THE WEIGHT OF A SNOWFLAKE

Just thought this might spark a few fence sitters. Surely goodness and mercy.....
Please take a moment to read the story, it speaks to the christ in all of us.

The Weight of a Snowflake

"Tell me the weight of a snowflake," a coalmouse asked a wilddove.

"Nothing more than nothing," the dove answered.

"In that case I must tell you a marvelous story," the coalmouse
said. "I sat on a fir branch close to the trunk when it began to
snow. Not heavily, not in a raging blizzard. No, just like in a dream,
without any violence at all. Since I didn't have anything better to do,
I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my
branch. Their number was exactly 3,471,952. When the next snowflake
dropped onto the branch--nothing more than nothing--as you say--the
branch broke off."

Having said that, the coalmouse ran away.

The dove, since Noah's time an authority on peace, thought about
the story for a while. Finally, she said to herself, "Perhaps there is
only one person's voice lacking for peace to come to the world."

-Source unknown

Posted by jjtechno at 02:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Key values,green values

10 KEY VALUES
1. GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY

2. SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

3. ECOLOGICAL WISDOM

4. NON-VIOLENCE

5. DECENTRALIZATION

6. COMMUNITY BASED ECONOMICS

7. FEMINISM AND GENDER EQUITY

8. RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY

9. PERSONAL AND GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY

10. FUTURE FOCUS AND SUSTAINABILITY

The Green Party of the United States of America

Posted by jjtechno at 12:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wanted: A Democratic Plan

I just love common dreams. The author nailed it. I could not have said it better.
Greens ask the same questions and it falls on deaf ears. Maybe when dems ask?

Wanted: A Democratic Plan
by Ruth Conniff

How hard is it to pull together a theme like the Contract with America? How many people even remember what that contract contained? A survey of voters shortly after the Gingrich Revolution of 1994 showed that a majority--including those who voted for the Republicans who took over Congress that year--had no idea what they were agreeing to, contractually speaking.

Yet the Democrats are agonizing over the lack of national "theme" for their 2006 Congressional campaigns. Monday’s New York Times has a front-page story headlined "For Democrats, Many Voices, but No Theme Song."

Sure, Bush's approval ratings are at an all-time low. Between civil war in Iraq, the tapes showing Bush did, indeed, hear the news in advance that the New Orleans levees might be breached, Dick-Cheney-shot-a-guy-in-the-face-gate, and all the other signs of the cronyism, incompetence, and half-cocked aggression of this administration, you'd think the Dems could pull something together.

How about returning government to the people? How about a giant check representing the perks that guys like Tom DeLay and Duke Cunningham got in exchange for corrupt political deals? How about tearing up a big no-bid contract with corporations and promising to use the money that has gone to Halliburton, instead, for rebuilding our own infrastructure at competitive rates?

Maybe some sort of clever idea will emerge at the Progressive Caucus news conference this week, where the group plans to announce, along with military and business leaders, a "Common Sense Budget Act" that will divert wasteful military spending to more useful ends.

The truth is, contrary to received wisdom, the Democrats are not lacking ideas. There is no shortage--good and bad--on both sides of the aisle. What the Democrats lack is a decent political gimmick. (After all, the kinds of ideas politicos get all excited about are often lousy notions like cutting off welfare to see if poverty is caused by public aid, or, more recently, going to war in Iraq to see if it causes democracy to roll across the Middle East.)

Maybe what the Democrats need to do is hold a contest to see what kinds of gimmicks people can come up with. Or maybe they should just lift the Contract with America gimmick and call it something like a New Contract, a New Deal, even. Anti-corruption was a major theme of the Contract with America. Term limits and a massive audit to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in government were among the Contract's promises (in fact, the Gingrich era corresponded with the rise of Jack Abramoff, the decline of ethics investigations, and the massive increase of lobbyist money directed to the Republican Party.)

Within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress, signers of Gingrich's Contract promised to introduce:

1. The Fiscal Responsibility Act, to balance the budget and cut taxes
2. The Taking Back Our Streets Act to get tough on crime
3. The Personal Responsibility Act to cut welfare and tie government aid to work.
4. The Family Reinforcement Act (adoption, child support, parents' rights)
5. The American Dream Restoration Act ($500 per child tax credit, tax cuts)
6. The National Security Restoration Act (military spending)
7. The Senior Citizens Fairness Act (Social Security reform)
8. The Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act (more tax cuts)
9. The Common Sense Legal Reform Act (tort reform)
10. The Citizen Legislature Act (term limits)

Heck, it would take about five minutes to draft a Democratic version, starting with, well, the Fiscal Responsibility Act to end tax cuts to the very wealthy during times of war . . . you get the idea.

A list of Democratic initiatives aimed to clean up corruption in Congress, restore a sane budget (this is where the Common Sense Budget Act comes in), and plug the holes in Homeland Security could easily serve the dual purpose of addressing what's wrong with the Republican regime and reminding Americans what their real priorities are. On the social services front, more than a decade after the first Contract with America, the welfare reform horse has been beaten to death. In some ways, rhetorically at least, that's good for Democrats. It's safe to talk about doing something constructive for the growing numbers of poor people in our country--particularly in the wake of Katrina--without running into welfare-cutting doubletalk.

The massive run-up in the deficit and the billions spent on war call for a shift in priorities. The Democrats need only to pull together and outline their own ten-point plan for restoring safety and sanity to our federal government.

It can be done.

Posted by jjtechno at 07:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 07, 2006

Here We Go Again

Does this sound familiar?

The great issue before the American people today is the control of government and industry by private monopoly.

For a generation the people have struggled patiently, in the face of repeated betrayals by successive administrations, to free themselves from this intolerable power which has been undermining representative government.

Through control of government, monopoly has steadily extended its absolute dominion to every basic industry.

In violation of law, monopoly has crushed competition, stifled private initiative and independent enterprise, and without fear of punishment now exacts extortionate profits upon every necessity of life consumed by the public.

The equality of opportunity proclaimed by the Declaration of Independence and asserted and defended by Jefferson and Lincoln as the heritage of every American citizen has been displaced by special privilege for the few, wrested from the government of the many.

Posted by jjtechno at 11:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 06, 2006

Impeachment

More Lies!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030205-1.html#29
And then Sec. Powell you say... Yes Mr.President
Al Qaida continues to have a deep interest in acquiring weapons of mass destruction. As with the story of Zarqawi and his network, I can trace the story of a senior terrorist operative telling how Iraq provided training in these weapons to Al Qaida.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030606N.shtml
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/6981
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=taxonomy/term/4

Posted by jjtechno at 02:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What it means to be Republican

I do not think I can say it better. I would add that many Democrats are no better.

From an article on CommonDreams.

What It Means To Be A Republican
by Larry Beinhart

The vice president shoots you in the heart and in the face. Then you apologize for all the trouble it’s caused him. That’s what it means to be a Republican.

Despite almost hysterical warnings the president stays asleep at the wheel. He does nothing about terrorism and 9/11 happens. He responds by running away to Nebraska. Three days later he makes a supposedly impromptu speech with a bull horn on the rubble of the World Trade Center. He is universally cheered as a hero. That’s what it means to be a Republican. The president puts together false claims to go to war with the wrong country. His party universally supports him. That’s what it means to be a Republican.

The administration mismanages the war in Iraq so that it creates chaos, a breeding ground for terrorists and political opportunities for Islamic fundamentalists. Along the way, the reasons for going to war are exposed as false. The president runs on national security as his main issue. He is re-elected. That’s what it means to be a Republican.

The president cheerfully gives away the surplus to the richest people in the country. Then he runs up record debts, just to throw more money their way. He claims it has helped America’s economy. People act like they believe him. That’s what it means to be a Republican.

The administration continues it’s magnificent tradition of going to sleep when it is warned of disaster. It does nothing when Katrina is coming. It continues its record of doing nothing when disaster arrives. As New Orleans was lost, just as when the World Trade Center was lost, the president got as far away as possible. But he can’t be blamed for what nature did. That’s what it means to be a Republican.

The president orders wiretaps without warrants, a straightforward violation of the constitution. When the Attorney General is called to testify, the head of the Judiciary Committee insists that his testimony not be under oath. The head of the intelligence committee suggests that the law be changed, now, to make it legal after the fact. That’s what it means to be a Republican.

Alberto Gonzales helped come up with the program that rejected the Geneva Conventions, that permits torture, that says that the president is above the law and that “I was only following orders” should be a defense against a charge of war crimes. Ah, if only the Nazi war criminals who were hung at Nuremberg had Gonzales there to defend them. The president nominates Gonzales to be his new Attorney General. He is confirmed with little debate and no outrage. That’s what it means to be a Republican.

This needs to be understood.

What it implies is that Republicans can’t be dealt with as if reason and facts will sway them. Because it wont. It’s hard for reality based people, regular Democrats and Liberals to understand that.

What it let’s us know is that reality based people, Democrats, Liberals, real Conservatives, old-fashioned Republicans and non-profit Christians have to take more vigorous and rigorous stands. Or reality and real American values and the American landscape will disappear, not just temporarily, but forever.

Posted by jjtechno at 09:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 04, 2006

Big Oil

So what are you gonna' say to your kids?
We are being sold down the river,I hope you can swim!

Posted by jjtechno at 11:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A real weapon

Here is a great view of kyudo!

More here
and here too.

Posted by jjtechno at 01:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Dominion Theory

I was doing a bit of online research where I ran across a number of intersting links.

Newspeak.com
Kansas watch blog
The cornell center for religion, ethics and social policy
Theocracy watch
The most interesting article caught my attention and I thought you might enjoy it.
Dominion Theology

From Sociologist Sara Diamond in an article titled "Dominion Theology:"

More prevalent on the Christian Right is the Dominionist idea, shared by Reconstructionists, that Christians alone are Biblically mandated to occupy all secular institutions until Christ returns -- and there is no consensus on when that might be.

From George Grant, a leading dominionist writer in The Changing of the Guard, Biblical Principles for Political Action:

Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ -- to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness.

But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice.

It is dominion we are after. Not just influence.

It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.

It is dominion we are after.

World conquest. That's what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish. We must win the world with the power of the Gospel. And we must never settle for anything less... Thus, Christian politics has as its primary intent the conquest of the land -- of men, families, institutions, bureaucracies, courts, and governments for the Kingdom of Christ. (pp. 50-51)

(The above quote comes from Dominion Theology: Blessing or Curse by Thomas Ice, published in 1988 by H. Wayne House and Thomas Ice. pp. 412)

Posted by jjtechno at 11:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 03, 2006

If I had a dime for everytime I heard it,I would be a rich....

For all my fundamentalist brothers and sisters. I do love you, but please go easy on your sauce. Not a single one of us(catholic) is going to heaven because we can follow the law. The jews don't claim to. I have posted the list of laws. By all means let me know which ones you think apply and those that don't, less of course you don't like being called a liar!

613 is not a lucky number!
The 613 commandments and their source in scripture, as enumerated by Maimonides:

1. To know there is a God Ex. 20:2
2. Not to entertain thoughts of other gods besides Him Ex. 20:3
3. To know that He is one Deut. 6:4
4. To love Him Deut. 6:5
5. To fear Him Deut. 10:20
6. To sanctify His Name Lev. 22:32
7. Not to profane His Name Lev. 22:32
8. Not to destroy objects associated with His Name Deut. 12:4
9. To listen to the prophet speaking in His Name Deut. 18:15
10. Not to test the prophet unduly Deut. 6:16
11. To emulate His ways Deut. 28:9
12. To cleave to those who know Him Deut. 10:20
13. To love other Jews Lev. 19:18
14. To love converts Deut. 10:19
15. Not to hate fellow Jews Lev. 19:17
16. To reprove a sinner Lev. 19:17
17. Not to embarrass others Lev. 19:17
18. Not to oppress the weak Ex. 21:22
19. Not to speak derogatorily of others Lev. 19:16
20. Not to take revenge Lev. 19:18
21. Not to bear a grudge Lev. 19:18
22. To learn Torah Deut. 6:7
23. To honor those who teach and know Torah Lev. 19:32
24. Not to inquire into idolatry Lev. 19:4
25. Not to follow the whims of your heart or what your eyes see Num. 15:39
26. Not to blaspheme Ex. 22:27
27. Not to worship idols in the manner they are worshiped Ex. 20:5
28. Not to worship idols in the four ways we worship God Ex. 20:5
29. Not to make an idol for yourself Ex. 20:4
30. Not to make an idol for others Lev. 19:4
31. Not to make human forms even for decorative purposes Ex. 20:20
32. Not to turn a city to idolatry Ex. 23:13
33. To burn a city that has turned to idol worship Deut. 13:17
34. Not to rebuild it as a city Deut. 13:17
35. Not to derive benefit from it Deut. 13:18
36. Not to missionize an individual to idol worship Deut. 13:12
37. Not to love the missionary Deut. 13:9
38. Not to cease hating the missionary Deut. 13:9
39. Not to save the missionary Deut. 13:9
40. Not to say anything in his defense Deut. 13:9
41. Not to refrain from incriminating him Deut. 13:9
42. Not to prophesize in the name of idolatry Deut. 13:14
43. Not to listen to a false prophet Deut. 13:4
44. Not to prophesize falsely in the name of God Deut. 18:20
45. Not to be afraid of killing the false prophet Deut. 18:22
46. Not to swear in the name of an idol Ex. 23:13
47. Not to perform ov (medium) Lev. 19:31
48. Not to perform yidoni ("magical seer") Lev. 19:31
49. Not to pass your children through the fire to Molech Lev. 18:21
50. Not to erect a column in a public place of worship Deut. 16:22
51. Not to bow down on smooth stone Lev. 26:1
52. Not to plant a tree in the Temple courtyard Deut. 16:21
53. To destroy idols and their accessories Deut. 12:2
54. Not to derive benefit from idols and their accessories Deut. 7:26
55. Not to derive benefit from ornaments of idols Deut. 7:25
56. Not to make a covenant with idolaters Deut. 7:2
57. Not to show favor to them Deut. 7:2
58. Not to let them dwell in the land of IsraelEx. 23:33
59. Not to imitate them in customs and clothing Lev. 20:23
60. Not to be superstitious Lev. 19:26
61. Not to go into a trance to foresee events, etc. Deut. 18:10
62. Not to engage in astrology Lev. 19:26
63. Not to mutter incantations Deut. 18:11
64. Not to attempt to contact the dead Deut. 18:11
65. Not to consult the ov Deut. 18:11
66. Not to consult the yidoni Deut. 18:11
67. Not to perform acts of magic Deut. 18:10
68. Men must not shave the hair off the sides of their head Lev. 19:27
69. Men must not shave their beards with a razor Lev. 19:27
70. Men must not wear women's clothing Deut. 22:5
71. Women must not wear men's clothing Deut. 22:5
72. Not to tattoo the skin Lev. 19:28
73. Not to tear the skin in mourning Deut. 14:1
74. Not to make a bald spot in mourning Deut. 14:1
75. To repent and confess wrongdoings Num. 5:7
76. To say the Shema twice daily Deut. 6:7
77. To serve the Almighty with prayer daily Ex. 23:25
78. The Kohanim must bless the Jewish nation daily Num. 6:23
79. To wear tefillin (phylacteries) on the head Deut. 6:8
80. To bind tefillin on the arm Deut. 6:8
81. To put a mezuzah on each door post Deut. 6:9
82. Each male must write a Torah scroll Deut. 31:19
83. The king must have a separate Sefer Torah for himself Deut. 17:18
84. To have tzitzit on four-cornered garments Num. 15:38
85. To bless the Almighty after eating Deut. 8:10
86. To circumcise all males on the eighth day after their birth Lev. 12:3
87. To rest on the seventh day Ex. 23:12
88. Not to do prohibited labor on the seventh day Ex. 20:10
89. The court must not inflict punishment on Shabbat Ex. 35:3
90. Not to walk outside the city boundary on Shabbat Ex. 16:29
91. To sanctify the day with Kiddush and Havdalah Ex. 20:8
92. To rest from prohibited labor Lev. 23:32
93. Not to do prohibited labor on Yom Kippur Lev. 23:32
94. To afflict yourself on Yom Kippur Lev. 16:29
95. Not to eat or drink on Yom Kippur Lev. 23:29
96. To rest on the first day of Passover Lev. 23:7
97. Not to do prohibited labor on the first day of Passover Lev. 23:8
98. To rest on the seventh day of Passover Lev. 23:8
99. Not to do prohibited labor on the seventh day of Passover Lev. 23:8
100. To rest on Shavuot Lev. 23:21
101. Not to do prohibited labor on Shavuot Lev. 23:21
102. To rest on Rosh Hashana Lev. 23:24
103. Not to do prohibited labor on Rosh Hashana Lev. 23:25
104. To rest on Sukkot Lev. 23:35
105. Not to do prohibited labor on Sukkot Lev. 23:35
106. To rest on Shmini Atzeret Lev. 23:36
107. Not to do prohibited labor on Shmini Atzeret Lev. 23:36
108. Not to eat chametz on the afternoon of the 14th day of Nissan Deut. 16:3
109. To destroy all chametz on 14th day of Nissan Ex. 12:15
110. Not to eat chametz all seven days of Passover Ex. 13:3
111. Not to eat mixtures containing chametz all seven days of Passover Ex. 12:20
112. Not to see chametz in your domain seven days Ex. 13:7
113. Not to find chametz in your domain seven days Ex. 12:19
114. To eat matzah on the first night of Passover Ex. 12:18
115. To relate the Exodus from Egypt on that night Ex. 13:8
116. To hear the Shofar on the first day of Tishrei (Rosh Hashana) Num. 9:1
117. To dwell in a Sukkah for the seven days of Sukkot Lev. 23:42
118. To take up a Lulav and Etrog all seven days Lev. 23:40
119. Each man must give a half shekel annually Ex. 30:13
120. Courts must calculate to determine when a new month begins Ex. 12:2
121. To afflict and cry out before God in times of catastrophe Num. 10:9
122. To marry a wife by means of ketubah and kiddushin Deut. 22:13
123. Not to have sexual relations with women not thus married Deut. 23:18
124. Not to withhold food, clothing, and sexual relations from your wife Ex. 21:10
125. To have children with one's wife Gen 1:28 HE
126. To issue a divorce by means of a Get document Deut. 24:1
127. A man must not remarry his wife after she has married someone else Deut. 24:4
128. To do yibbum (marry the widow of one's childless brother) Deut. 25:5
129. To do chalitzah (free the widow of one's childless brother from yibbum) Deut. 25:9
130. The widow must not remarry until the ties with her brother-in-law are removed Deut. 25:5
131. The court must fine one who sexually seduces a maiden Ex. 22:15-16
132. The rapist must marry the maiden (if she chooses) Deut. 22:29
133. He is never allowed to divorce her Deut. 22:29
134. The slanderer must remain married to his wife Deut. 22:19
135. He must not divorce her Deut. 22:19
136. To fulfill the laws of the Sotah Num. 5:30
137. Not to put oil on her meal offering Num. 5:15
138. Not to put frankincense on her meal offering Num. 5:15
139. Not to have sexual relations with your mother Lev. 18:7
140. Not to have sexual relations with your father's wife Lev. 18:8
141. Not to have sexual relations with your sister Lev. 18:9
142. Not to have sexual relations with your father's wife's daughter Lev. 18:11
143. Not to have sexual relations with your son's daughter Lev. 18:10
144. Not to have sexual relations with your daughter Lev. 18:10
145. Not to have sexual relations with your daughter's daughter Lev. 18:10
146. Not to have sexual relations with a woman and her daughter Lev. 18:17
147. Not to have sexual relations with a woman and her son's daughter Lev. 18:17
148. Not to have sexual relations with a woman and her daughter's daughter Lev. 18:17
149. Not to have sexual relations with your father's sister Lev. 18:12
150. Not to have sexual relations with your mother's sister Lev. 18:13
151. Not to have sexual relations with your father's brother's wife Lev. 18:14
152. Not to have sexual relations with your son's wife Lev. 18:15
153. Not to have sexual relations with your brother's wife Lev. 18:16
154. Not to have sexual relations with your wife's sister Lev. 18:18
155. A man must not have sexual relations with a beast Lev. 18:23
156. A woman must not have sexual relations with a beast Lev. 18:23
157. Not to have homosexual sexual relations Lev. 18:22
158. Not to have homosexual sexual relations with your father Lev. 18:7
159. Not to have homosexual sexual relations with your father's brother Lev. 18:14
160. Not to have sexual relations with someone else's wife Lev. 18:20
161. Not to have sexual relations with a menstrually impure woman Lev. 18:19
162. Not to marry non-Jews Deut. 7:3
163. Not to let Moabite and Ammonite males marry into the Jewish people Deut. 23:4
164. Don't keep a third-generation Egyptian convert from marrying into the Jewish people Deut. 23:8-9
165. Not to refrain from marrying a third generation Edomite convert Deut. 23:8-9
166. Not to let a mamzer (a child born to a married woman from a sexual relationship she had with any man to whom she was not married) marry into the Jewish people Deut. 23:3
167. Not to let a eunuch marry into the Jewish people Deut. 23:2
168. Not to offer to God any castrated male animals Lev. 22:24
169. The High Priest must not marry a widow Lev. 21:14
170. The High Priest must not have sexual relations with a widow even outside of marriage Lev. 21:15
171. The High Priest must marry a virgin maiden Lev. 21:13
172. A Kohen (priest) must not marry a divorcee Lev. 21:7
173. A Kohen must not marry a zonah (a woman who has had a forbidden sexual relationship) Lev. 21:7
174. A priest must not marry a chalalah ("a desecrated person") (party to or product of 169-172) Lev. 21:7
175. Not to make pleasurable (sexual) contact with any forbidden woman Lev. 18:6
176. To examine the signs of animals to distinguish between kosher and non-kosher Lev. 11:2
177. To examine the signs of fowl to distinguish between kosher and non-kosher Deut. 14:11
178. To examine the signs of fish to distinguish between kosher and non-kosher Lev. 11:9
179. To examine the signs of locusts to distinguish between kosher and non-kosher Lev. 11:21
180. Not to eat non-kosher animals Lev. 11:4
181. Not to eat non-kosher fowl Lev. 11:13
182. Not to eat non-kosher fish Lev. 11:11
183. Not to eat non-kosher flying insects Deut. 14:19
184. Not to eat non-kosher creatures that crawl on land Lev. 11:41
185. Not to eat non-kosher maggots Lev. 11:44
186. Not to eat worms found in fruit on the ground Lev. 11:42
187. Not to eat creatures that live in water other than (kosher) fish Lev. 11:43
188. Not to eat the meat of an animal that died without ritual slaughter Deut. 14:21
189. Not to benefit from an ox condemned to be stoned Ex. 21:28
190. Not to eat meat of an animal that was mortally wounded Ex. 22:30
191. Not to eat a limb torn off a living creature Deut.
192. Not to eat blood Lev. 3:17
193. Not to eat certain fats of clean animals Lev. 3:17
194. Not to eat the sinew of the thigh Gen. 32:33
195. Not to eat meat and milk cooked together Ex. 23:19
196. Not to cook meat and milk together Ex. 34:26
197. Not to eat bread from new grain before the Omer Lev. 23:14
198. Not to eat parched grains from new grain before the Omer Lev. 23:14
199. Not to eat ripened grains from new grain before the Omer Lev. 23:14
200. Not to eat fruit of a tree during its first three years Lev. 19:23
201. Not to eat diverse seeds planted in a vineyard Deut. 22:9
202. Not to eat untithed fruits Lev. 22:15
203. Not to drink wine poured in service to idols Deut. 32:38
204. To ritually slaughter an animal before eating it Deut. 12:21
205. Not to slaughter an animal and its offspring on the same day Lev. 22:28
206. To cover the blood (of a slaughtered beast or fowl) with earth Lev. 17:13
207. Not to take the mother bird from her children Deut. 22:6
208. To release the mother bird if she was taken from the nest Deut. 22:7
209. Not to swear falsely in God's Name Lev. 19:12
210. Not to take God's Name in vain Ex. 20:7
211. Not to deny possession of something entrusted to you Lev. 19:11
212. Not to swear in denial of a monetary claim Lev. 19:11
213. To swear in God's Name to confirm the truth when deemed necessary by court Deut. 10:20
214. To fulfill what was uttered and to do what was avowed Deut. 23:24
215. Not to break oaths or vows Num. 30:3
216. For oaths and vows annulled, there are the laws of annulling vows explicit in the Torah Num. 30:3
217. The Nazir must let his hair grow Num. 6:5
218. He must not cut his hair Num. 6:5
219. He must not drink wine, wine mixtures, or wine vinegar Num. 6:3
220. He must not eat fresh grapes Num. 6:3
221. He must not eat raisins Num. 6:3
222. He must not eat grape seeds Num. 6:4
223. He must not eat grape skins Num. 6:4
224. He must not be under the same roof as a corpse Num. 6:6
225. He must not come into contact with the dead Num. 6:7
226. He must shave after bringing sacrifices upon completion of his Nazirite period Num. 6:9
227. To estimate the value of people as determined by the Torah Lev. 27:2
228. To estimate the value of consecrated animals Lev. 27:12-13
229. To estimate the value of consecrated houses Lev. 27:14
230. To estimate the value of consecrated fields Lev. 27:16
231. Carry out the laws of interdicting possessions (cherem) Lev. 27:28
232. Not to sell the cherem Lev. 27:28
233. Not to redeem the cherem Lev. 27:28
234. Not to plant diverse seeds together Lev. 19:19
235. Not to plant grains or greens in a vineyard Deut. 22:9
236. Not to crossbreed animals Lev. 19:19
237. Not to work different animals together Deut. 22:10
238. Not to wear shatnez, a cloth woven of wool and linen Deut. 22:11
239. To leave a corner of the field uncut for the poor Lev. 19:10