30 Kasım 2012 Cuma

TIL Mother Teresa defended a pedophile priest

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While reading 50 Reasons to Boycott the Catholic Church by Adam Lee, I followed a link to Tainted Saint: Mother Teresa Defended Pedophile Priest by Peter Jamison. I am no fan of Mother Teresa. I know the story of her love of suffering, which the world conveniently ignores. I did not know she was connected to the Catholic clergy sexual abuse scandal. This stunning new information (to me anyway) added another layer to complex tapestry of hatred, lies and misinformation that is Mother Teresa.

…Yet documents obtained by SF Weekly suggest that Mother Teresa knew one of her favorite priests was removed from ministry for sexually abusing a Bay Area boy in 1993, and that she nevertheless urged his bosses to return him to work as soon as possible. The priest resumed active ministry, as well as his predatory habits. Eight additional complaints were lodged against him in the coming years by various families, leading to his eventual arrest on sex-abuse charges in 2005.

The priest was Donald McGuire, a former Jesuit who has been convicted of molesting boys in federal and state courts and is serving a 25-year federal prison sentence…

The “she” referenced in the first paragraph of the quote is none other than Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, better known to the world as Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa goes on to directly intervene in the case, which leads to the reinstatement of Donald McGuire and the abuse of more children.

In a 1994 letter to McGuire's Jesuit superior in Chicago, it appears that Mother Teresa acknowledged she had learned of the "sad events which took [McGuire] from his priestly ministry these past seven months," and that McGuire "admitted imprudence in his behavior," but she wished to see him put back on the job. The letter was written after McGuire had been sent to a psychiatric hospital following an abuse complaint to the Jesuits by a family in Walnut Creek.

Mother Teresa will be a saint one day. How sad is that?

Notes

  • TIL is Today I Learned, which is a term gleaned from Reddit.
  • Read Christopher Hitchens book, The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice, for more insight into the life and ‘service’ of Mother Teresa.
Technorati Tags: Clergy Sexual Abuse,Catholics,Mother Teresa,Christopher Hitchens

The Story of Christmas that Should be Told - AGAIN

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(From the updated version found at theopenscroll.com/christmas.htm)

The traditional telling of the story of Christmas fails miserably in communicating the message that really needs to be heard. The dramatic version reenacted in your local church compares to a banquet that offers only dinner rolls and pudding. It's not very satisfying, and sickening, really. The church's familiar interpretation of the historical drama surrounding the birth of Christ neglects an essential message about judgment and accountability. The real story is a far more poignant one, piercing even, but most find it quite unpalatable because it confronts us with the harsh reality that our God is just, and reminds us that we too will be held accountable for our own words and deeds.

While I'm grateful for an annual reminder that there was born in the city of David a saviour, which is Christ the Lord, those who might otherwise be drawn to know Him are repelled by the hypocrisy of the half-truth telling sponsors of the message.

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” ~ John 3:16-21
When the biblical account of the birth of our Lord is considered in a mature fashion it becomes apparent that our hypocrisy will be dealt with, and that's very sobering. Yet, if we repent, and this is my hopeful expectation, it will be well with us!

Because the way I discovered what I'm going to present is very relevant, I'm going to preface the telling of the story by sharing my testimony. This is all very personal to me.

Several years ago, my wife (now, ex-) and I had hoped to have another child but were very disappointed, with a miscarriage that had quite an emotional impact on both of us. It was while I was in a definite season of grieving that I was led in my studies into the record of Matthew 2, which I had read many times before. That passage gives an account of the decree made by King Herod, who put young boys around Bethlehem to death in an apparent attempt to eliminate the threat of competition for his throne. On this particular day, I began to consider very deeply how the execution of that decree must have impacted the community, and in particular the mothers and fathers of the slain toddlers. Quite unexpectedly, the grieving I knew very personally for my own recent loss was replaced or displaced with something else. By a kind of transference, a deep and heavy grief with weeping came upon me as I became identified with those parents. I was aware how this very intense experience was not of a natural emotional kind but rather supernatural. The spirit of God was upon me. This was not for my recent loss but for theirs, then. In this state of having an open wound I poured out my heart before the Lord, inquiring about why these boys were allowed to be killed, about why He permitted such a tragedy. It was very intense and very personal. This expression continued for several minutes until I was struck with a chilling conviction. The answer was received. I understood the reason why. I had never considered it before but I immediately knew it to be true. God is just. This is how the Lord revealed to me what I'm about to share with you; the story of Christmas that should be told.

May the Lord of Glory grant you spiritual insight, understanding and conviction as His love unfolds in the telling of this precious and powerful story, as I believe it should be told..

The Christmas Story
The sun was sinking low in the darkening autumn sky over Israel, signaling those in the land of the close of one day and the beginning of the next. On this particular day the darkening western sky was very likely watched closely by specially appointed observers at their hilltop and desert posts, who looked expectantly for the first visible crescent of the new moon. Upon sighting it, the report would have been sent throughout the land that the seventh month had begun, signaling the start of a holy day that was noisily celebrated with shouting and the blowing of trumpets. Yom Teruah had arrived, Rosh HaShanah!

This particular day was more special yet, because the count of time marked off from Adam was passing from the fourth millennium into the fifth. What made that memorable night even more notable was this; the Messiah of Israel, the savior of all the world, was being born!

On this night, a gift of great magnitude would be given to all the people of the world, then and for all time! Now, what might seem like a small detail is really very, very important to note. Those in the vicinity of that fabled little town of Bethlehem would receive an additional blessing because the invitation to come and celebrate in the presence of the holy one of Israel would be announced in their very midst! It is the exclusivity of this opportunity that distinguished the locals from all others, in Israel and elsewhere. It is this feature that allows us to peer into the scriptural account and discern the sobering lesson that I pray will speak to your heart today.

Friends, it is a fact that with every gift given to men there comes with it the responsibility to use it wisely. According to our savior's own declaration, an accounting will be made that is commensurate with what is received.

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. ~ Luke 12:48(b)
Even small children can judge such a matter as just and fair. This is not to be taken lightly. It may be seen that those in the area of Bethlehem were given “much” on that night. I'm convinced that what followed in the historical scenario, what is sometimes referred to as “the slaughter of the innocents,” is directly connected as cause and effect. I believe making that connection illustrates from the perspective of justice how the gruesome slaughter decreed by the King was a consequence, the accounting of a deficiency in the response returned by the community of parents. With a view to the principle of “much given, much demanded,” I invite you to consider whether their response was commensurate with the magnitude of what they were given, and whether this lesson is for our benefit, yours and mine, today.

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to his own town to register. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. 8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." 13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” 15 when the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ~ Luke 2:1-16
Isn't that wonderful! What an awesome privilege for those humble shepherds to receive such a blessing! It may be that, of all those living on the earth in that day, an angel of the Lord and a great company of the heavenly host made a special appearance to just these particular men. They responded to this great honor in an appropriate manner. They hurried off and found the baby, the Savior, as they had been told. The character of these men may be seen in something you may never have considered. Shepherds were responsible for the flocks they tended. Leaving their flocks in the field meant putting their own lives in jeopardy because they were liable for the safety of the sheep! If sheep were lost due to their negligence, there was more at risk than having their pay docked, being placed on administrative leave or being fired - they would have been executed! Yet, these men deemed it worth the risk.

Now, pay close attention to what these men of faith did next.

When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ~ Luke 2:17
After finding Mary, Joseph and the baby, they broadcast the news, sharing the good news of great joy with the neighborhood! They excitedly proclaimed the word that had been given, that, on this very night, in that very town, a Savior had been born to them, and that he was their Messiah and Lord! Remember, this testimony was given on the holy day Yom Teruah, so the people of the land were at that very moment caught up in celebrating the traditions they were commanded to keep. This was no "sleepy little town." People were awake and actively celebrating with great blowing of trumpets and praise according as was their custom! Now, I want to bring to your attention the crucial fact that the very event for which that festival had been appointed was being fulfilled in their midst! The occasion for which they had actually been rehearsing every year for nearly 15 centuries had finally arrived! But yet, dear listener - they were not ready. The people of Bethlehem were tragically missing the point! What irony! "How is that"? you may ask. "How do you know"? Consider the biblical record, my dear friend, and hear what the holy spirit is speaking to you today.

When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. ~ Luke 2:17-20
In verses 18 and 19 of Luke 2 we find there are two kinds of response to the shepherd's testimony. The response of "all who heard it" is contrasted with Mary's. They were amazed, and we may infer by comparison that they neither treasured up all those things nor pondered them in their hearts. Having made this key observation, we are about to turn to the book of Matthew to continue the story's development.

I have brought to your attention the fact that the people of Bethlehem and its vicinity were given a unique gift. They, alone, received the testimony of the shepherds. I have pointed out their response, which is simply that they were amazed. Was that appropriate for what they had been given; was it enough?

On the night of the Messiah's birth, the heavens themselves bore testimony of the wondrous events taking place in Bethlehem, shining forth for the whole world to see. Certain men faithfully observed the season's celestial signs and, with confidence in their understanding of this testimony that was further validated by angelic visitation, they began a long journey westward. Magi from the East sought out the one foretold, traveling by caravan to Jerusalem with lavish gifts in anticipation of finding and worshiping the child. As the shepherds before them, these men of extraordinary faith came to be honored with that very privilege!

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2) and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." ~ Matthew 2:1-2
After they had heard the king, (Herod) they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. ~ Matthew 2:9-12
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 18 "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." ~ Matthew 2:16-18
If you know your biblical history, you already know that Rachel was the favored wife of Jacob. She bore him two children: Joseph and Benjamin. When the land of Canaan was distributed among the sons of Jacob, Bethlehem was among those appointed to Benjamin. Those in the vicinity of Bethlehem were Benjamites, and this observation must be worth noting because the "census" responsible for the presence of Joseph and Mary brought many others to their ancestral home. What was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled at that time because the Benjamite children of Rachel "were no more": Herod's decree had just been carried out!

A probable location of Rachel's tomb is associated with today's Bethlehem. It is identified with the territory of Benjamin in 1 Samuel.

1 Then Samuel took the flask of oil, poured it on his head, kissed him and said, “Has not the Lord anointed you a ruler over His inheritance? 2 When you go from me today, then you will find two men close to Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah...”’ ~ 1 Samuel 10:1-2a
And so it happened that, within two years of Jesus' birth, a grievous act was visited upon the very same people who had received the shepherd's testimony! Coincidence? No! Consequence! It was only after I was brought into identification with the grief felt by those mothers and fathers and then poured my heart out before the Lord that I came to know the reason for the tragic loss. This was an accounting. Justice was not long delayed.

On the night that the fathers and mothers of Bethlehem received the news of the birth of God's only begotten son, did they even go visit the child? The shepherds were glorifying and praising God. Mary treasured up those things she had heard and pondered them in her heart. But the people, all others in the neighborhood who heard, were amazed. Merely amazed. In other popular translations, the texts read: "wondered at." If you consider other scriptures where the sam“”e Greek word is used, you see there is no further action indicated. Could such a response have been adequate? Would there not have been a higher expectation given the magnitude of the gift they received? Could it have been merely coincidental that those subject to Herod's decree were the very same who had received the shepherd's testimony on the night of God's only begotten son's birth? Could there be no connection between their pathetically feeble response and the slaughter of their sons, whose ages at that time were directly related to the age of God's Son? The decree that brought the tragedy was directly related to the birth of that Son! Oh, there is a connection, friend. Cause and effect. In having received much, according to the Lord's own words, much was demanded of them.

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. ~ Luke 12:48(b)
The penalty was severe but just as the Roman tetrarch Herod unwittingly became God's agent in the visitation of judgment upon His people.

Here is a revelation of truth: As it was, so it will be. This story of the distant past and its people is for the present, for us! Our day and theirs are not so different, and neither are we so different from they. There was at that time an eager anticipation and heightened expectancy among God's people about the arrival of the Messiah, and so it is today. Few in number had been given the message directly, and so it is once again. A timely and important message falls now upon the ears of a people small in number. The lesson of the inadequate response of the Bethlehemites and the justice meted out is not so widely broadcast as to speak to every person and every gift. This lesson is more narrow, more specific to a particular season and people. Are you going to be merely amazed?

If the story of Christmas that should be told was proclaimed in the big donor-fests that pander to “Chreasters” it would empty the coffers of their ill-gotten booty. I count that as a good thing. Christmas pageants are not a marketing opportunity, or at least they shouldn't be. Christmas should not be looked at as the season to exploit the economic windfall as purse strings are loosed in the frenzy of giving encouraged by commercialism.

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. ~ John 3:19-20
Meditate on these words:

It's like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. 35 "Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back--whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!" ~ Mark 13:34-37
Those legitimate servants assigned the task of keeping watch at the door are giving a sound report. Are we amazed, idle and skeptical - asleep? Will you and I will be spared the consequences of neglecting such a gift? Unto whom much is given, much is demanded. Rise up my dear brothers and sisters. Seek to be found worthy of praise and all reward as a faithful steward.

The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me. ~ Luke 20:16
Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way. ~ Psalm 139:23-24

Part 56 - The Sodomite Gateway - Spirals Hearts and Triangles, Children In Crisis

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In Part 55 the sodomite gateway imagery of the childrens charity Locks of Love was featured. In this post I'm going to build off that to introduce another shameless pedophile brand that signals the exploitation of boys instead of girls. Both genders are useful to the Illumined abusers, and sought after when they are around the age of 3 because that's when they are best recruited into the SRA army of supersoldiers.

Front organizations are used for cover, and those that deal specifically with children, especially traumatized children, are prime for evaluating and harvesting these valued “resources.” I'm not calling out these organizations as a whistleblower does. I'm drawing your attention to their branding and helping you interpret the symbol language, so you can read their own coded declarations about who they are and what they do.

Among the tell-tale graphical elements on the Locks of Love website we find a signal pairing decorating some of the backgrounds; hearts and spirals. Combining the pair equates to spiraling hearts, which is the GirlLove symbol. The colors used by Locks of Love even match the color of the pedophile GLogo, which leaves no room for mistaken identity.

The GLogo represents male and female adults who sexually “love” or lust after little girls. The equivalent for adult pedophiles who lust after boys is the BLogo, and the similar LBLogo that specifies lust for little boys. The Glogo form is spiral hearts and the BLogo form is spiral triangles. The GirlLover version is pink and the BoyLover, blue.

It is apparent that the blue logo for the Make-A-Wish Foundation (Part 54) uses the modified A as a triangle and adds the superimposed spiral to perform the same magickal trick that Locks of Love plays in their backgrounds. Combining the triangle and spiral equates to spiraling triangles, which is the BLogo!

And now, introducing, Children In Crisis, Inc., an apparent counterpart to the Locks of Love brand! Decorating the background are darker and lighter blue spirals on a powder blue background. These spirals are irregular and compare favorably with the pedophile standard symbols as mirrored versions of the doubled triangle LBLogo. Those solar rayed spirals should be rightly identified as representing the anal triangle, the puckered sodomite gateway that ritual abusers use to produce flashes of white light as the victim's third eye is opened. If that's all a little too subtle for confident identification, we have their logo to add some redundancy to the message.

The white on blue graphic is for a charity that boasts the slogan, “Providing Homes...Keeping Brothers and Sisters Together.” Obviously, its a boy standing in front of a house with a happy looking sun in the clear blue sky. On the esoteric level, however, what looks like the sun has already been identified as what has been called the black sun, and the black hole sun. The house presents a pyramid, and the boy's head forms the pupil in an eye outlined below by his arms. Draw in the upper eyelid mentally, if you like. This eye is the capstone of a pyramid! Familiar, yes?

Just like on the Great Seal of the USA and in countless Pop music videos and fashion shoots, this triangle eye is the esoteric signal for the sodomite gateway! In the sky above the pyramid of the Children In Crisis, Inc. logo we find the illuminated and illuminating triangle. This should be recognized as the symbol of Horus, the sun god and a patron of sodomy, an agent of Lucifer worshiped by the Illumined brotherhood.

Here's a similar image, one I enhanced very slightly for a recent post about the sodomite Shriners. The “Steps of Freemasonry” poster pictures a kind of pyramid house with an illuminating G-EYE in the sky. Connect the dots.

When we read the slogan, “Providing Homes...Keeping Brothers and Sisters Together,” it should be understood in light of how Freemasons are the builders of the Beast pyramid temple, tracing their history back to Nimrod and the Tower of Babel, and further yet back to Cain, the very first builder of cities. In that ancient sodomite tradition, they figuratively use their trowels to bond families together, binding the living stones of their sacred house together with the mortar of the GI track. “Providing Homes...Keeping Brothers and Sisters Together,”

The scene I chose in this screenshot from their website pictures a line of boys, not with happy smiling faces but presenting their backsides. I looks like an ad for, hmmmmmm, right. What's that? Are those Shriners? No, oh no, no no. Silly. Those aren't the red fez, and they are much, much too young, you see.

The spiral in the hand you see in their prompt for interaction is a familiar magickal inducement that is sometimes also presented as an eye in the hand. There's usually a 666 embedding or some other Beast signaling appearing in conjunction with beast pyramid imagery. The mark of the Beast will be in the forehead or the right hand, and I believe this hand sign indicates just that.

The past and present exploitation of the sodomite gateway will serve until the mark is fully implemented. It is assured.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Before and After

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TAGS: DA,DT LGBT Navy Douchehattery
Some of the readers here are familiar with the general parameters of my story so I won't get too specific. I used to be an airframe technician for F-14A aircraft during the last half of the 1980s until early 1991. Although I wasn't a huge fan of the United States Navy, I enjoyed my job and I was good at it. VERY good. In fact I was so good that after I had been outed as transgendered, (by a "friend" who used his knowledge to distract from his second DUI offense), and after I had gone to Captain's Mast and after I had been told they were going to strip me of rank, benefits I'd earned and half of my pay, I was actually involuntarily EXTENDED to serve in the first Persian Gulf War. You see, though I had been deemed "unfit" to serve, I was the only person qualified to troubleshoot launches for the airframes shop and to act as flight deck safety at the same time. They told me I was being unceremoniously discharged but had to stay long enough to qualify people to replace me.
Before the hostilities were ended, I was on my way back to the states. Within 24 hours of landing, I had been reduced two pay grades, stripped of the benefits I'd earned and given an "Other Than Honorable" discharge. I say this not because I'm still wallowing in self pity after all of these years but to point out that, abominable as it is, the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is a relative newcomer and much, MUCH better than the previous patchwork of regulations regarding LGBT service people. Then, it was largely up to the unit commander what happened to an outed person. In my own case, the unit commander had no problem with it because he knew me and what I was capable of. I was told nothing was going to happen. That was before the change of command. The new skipper DID have a problem with it, a huge one. As I hadn't even violated the UCMJ, charges were trumped up to get rid of me. I fought for a while but it was clear from the beginning that they would wear me down eventually. If they want you gone, gone you will be.
Don't Ask, Don't Tell was a compromise, (or capitulation), made by President Clinton and was codified into law on December 21, 1993 when Clinton issued Department of Defense Directive 1304.26, requiring the DOD to stop asking applicants and active duty service members to disclose their sexual orientation. It not only supposedly put a stop to that, it also homogenized the penalties and in most cases softened them, for violators of the policy against LGBT persons. For example, it was no longer solely up to the unit commanding officer what penalty violators would pay, they would all be given administrative discharges under honorable conditions, allowing them to keep their rank, pay and benefits. It didn't stop the harassment or the witch hunts though.
Though I detest the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, it is leaps and bounds better than what used to happen prior to it coming into effect. Randy Shilts wrote an excellent book called "Conduct Unbecoming" about lesbians and Gays in the military and I recommend it to people who harbor illusions about what the policy used to be and what it is today. As much as I would like to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", I have never heard of the policy being repealed for transgendered people, just for lesbians and gays. Presumably transgendered Americans will still be sexually assaulted, harassed and hounded out of the service on trumped up charges. That doesn't seem to bother gay leaders much, most of whom have never served.
I'll close by dispelling a few myths:
Myth 1) The military is some hyper macho organization, rampant with homophobes and conservative bigots.
Fact: The military is a reflection of society, except a more disciplined reflection for the most part and a much younger one overall than society as a whole.
Myth 2) Congress has to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Fact: Don't Ask, Don't Tell is a Department of Defense Directive, later codified into law. The commander in chief could repeal it unilaterally and immediately.
Myth 3) Repeal of DA,DT would affect unit cohesion
Fact: Actually this one is true, it will make it much better since dishonesty breeds mistrust, honesty can only foster greater trust.

Here's a New Meme

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Here's a meme that progressives should make use of. It just occurred to me, and I'd like to pass it on.

Being born rich has no intrinsic value; it is in no way productive, useful or desirable. Most rich people contribute far less to society than do ordinary factory workers, bus drivers and janitors. Therefore, living off of ancestral wealth made by Daddy, Grand-dad, or Great-great-great to the nth degree going back to pre-Civil War plantation days is no more ethical than living off of welfare. In many cases it's far less ethical. So here's the meme:

Let's start calling that condition Ancestral Welfare, and bring up the term every time people who were actually brought up by nannies complain about "The Nanny State." The term goes hand-in-hand with the already familiar terms Class Warfare and Corporate Welfare, and is intimately connected to both.

Class warfare couldn't exist if it weren't for the scions of the last generation living off of the avails of their parents. And most of those inheritances are in trust funds tied into holdings of corporate stock.

Nobody with an ounce of sense believes that prominent heirs like Rush Limbaugh or Charles Krauthammer's points of view are anything but self-serving. The idol bloated bloviaters have not only stolen America's wealth, they've also dominated any conversation concerning wealth. So whether you're talking about social benefits, education, health care, or the structure of the tax system, you'll always get only the opinions of those who can well afford those things without any help from government.

What is the solution? Start taxing capital gains at a rate at least as high as that levied against money that is actually earned. And set the estate tax to something that promotes the American ideal of all men being created equal instead of eroding it.

The estate tax should be 0% for the 1st $1 million, and 99% for anything above that. If you are survived by a wife and six kids you'd be allowed to leave a legacy worth $7,000,000. That's not too shabby when you think about it.

Anybody who can't turn a million dollar inheritance into a pretty comfortable life has demonstrated an inability to compete in any kind of economy, especially a capitalist one. With $1 million you could buy a nice house or a platinum education or you could open a small business. In fact you could probably do any two of those things with $1 million and have considerable change left over. So anyone who says their children can't make it unless they get a billion dumped in their lap is really implying that their children are drooling idiots, fit only for wasting away in a hammock.

~~~~~~~~

On a more general note, it is lamentable that the so-called 'left' in America can't come up with counters to the memes put out by The Powers That Be, even when they're staring them in the face. If you're going to change the way things are going, or even halt the slide into modern feudalism the first step is going to be to change the tenor of the conversation. If you fight the battle on the other side's terms you don't have a chance.

TAGS: Capitalism, Leads to, Oligarchy, Every. Bloody. Time.

29 Kasım 2012 Perşembe

'Remember the beginning! Prince Hall plates!', by Bro. Derek Gordon

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The following is by Bro. Derek Gordon.

Remember the beginning! Prince Hall plates!

by Bro. Derek Gordon

Someone asked how this whole mess began. So, I thought it would be best to remind people. The issue began with the ARGL barring Masons from purchasing Arkansas license plates because of Prince Hall being involved in their creation. I posted a note on Sebastian Lodge’s website to spread the word as the Letter required; I added a note that we did not condone the Letter because it stunk with racial undertones.

Many writers and bloggers saw this and copied our text in their articles. This sent the ARGL into a major defensive posture, something the ARGL can never be forced to take because it is too righteous. In retaliation, the whole issue with me started. Their latest and greatest charge is that I posted secret Masonic ciphers on the Sebastian Lodge website. In fact, should that have occurred, all data on the website came from the ARGL website and websites it linked to. By the way, they removed their website because so many bloggers mentioned this obvious connection.

But one thing is for certain: ARGL and Grand Master Warren will continue to deny that race has any part in their actions. BUT, this problem came from a racial letter sent out by ARGL. If it was not for that, there would be no action against me.

The website was known to ARGL prior to the RACIAL incident. I spoke with Grand Secretary James Weatherall requesting a link to be made to the site. I wanted him to let me know if content wasn’t acceptable. This of course was in the summer of 2009. Other comments were made throughout the rest of that calendar year. No problems, no complaints. But, amazingly enough the ARGL now has a cause of action against me AFTER the RACIAL incident.

I wonder, did they want to hold onto a cause of action in case it was ever needed? Is this how a Grand Lodge operates to make sure it can remove its dissidents? The ARGL has had its opportunity to make peace with the matter, but there is no desire on their part to resolve this matter in an ethical and moral fashion.

Want to really see how this unraveled? Take an open-minded approach by viewing some of the most prominent articles and blogs that kicked off the ARGL’s attack against me:

http://burningtaper.blogspot.com/2010/02/arkansas-masons-forbidden-from-buying.html
http://freemasonsfordummies.blogspot.com/2010/02/masonic-license-plates-in-arkansas.html
http://www.speculativemason.com/node/370
http://www.masonsoftexas.com/showthread.php/10670-Arkansas-masonic-liscense-plates?language=tl
http://www.freemasoninformation.com/2010/03/grand-masters-ruling-hurtful/
http://burningtaper.blogspot.com/2010/03/grand-lodge-of-arkansas-pulls-charter.html
http://www.freemasoninformation.com/2010/03/collateral-damage-the-aftermath-of-the-arkansas-license-plate-scandal/
http://burningtaper.blogspot.com/2010/03/gl-of-ars-letter-to-bro-derek-gordon.html
http://burningtaper.blogspot.com/2010/04/tell-grand-lodge-of-arkansas-what-you.html
http://burningtaper.blogspot.com/2010/04/text-of-letter-from-gm-of-arkansas.html
http://www.freemasoninformation.com/2010/04/the-handshake-of-expulsion/
http://burningtaper.blogspot.com/2010/04/handshake-of-expulsion.html
http://www.freemasoninformation.com/2010/04/mainstream-masonry-shooting-itself-in-the-foot/
http://burningtaper.blogspot.com/2010/04/searching-for-light-in-arkansas-night.html

Masons | Masonic Trial | Small Town Freemasonry | Freemasonry | Grand Lodge of Arkansas | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Not your grandfather's Freemasonry

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Bro. Fred Milliken has written an excellent piece titled "I Resign."

Though the information presented about Bro. Derek Gordon's ordeal with the Grand Lodge of Arkansas is interesting and enlightening, the real meat to the article is Bro. Fred's summary:
  1. This is no longer your Grandfather’s Chevrolet... er, Grand Lodge. Freemasonry must stop living in the past as West Virginia and Arkansas are doing. Instead it needs to adapt to the mores of present day society.

  2. Running a closed society that allows no freedom of expression and muzzles its members is antithetical to Freemasonry of the Enlightenment.

  3. Operating a society with laws, rules and regulations that conflict with civil law and civil rights is not only not in the spirit of Freemasonry but also blatantly immoral.

  4. An organization in this day and age, especially a nonprofit volunteer one, cannot realistically force a person against his will to remain a member. It should be the option of any Freemason to simply resign from any Grand Lodge.

  5. Making up silly and vindictive rules such as prohibiting members from using the Internet or any electronic means to discuss Freemasonry is unbecoming and un-Masonic.

  6. It’s been almost 50 years since Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement transformed America. It is past time that Grand Lodges reflected that change.

  7. It is painfully evident that Grand Lodges can no longer operate as they have done in the past. This is the 21st century with new ways of looking at different lifestyles and morality. Grand Lodges are now in a public-private partnership yet they refuse to recognize their duty to civil law and their new commitments. Failure of Freemasonry to operate within the framework of present day moral, societal and political civil practice could be very costly to the Craft.
Bro. Fred makes some excellent points. Read the entire article.

Masons | Masonic Trial | Derek Gordon | Freemasonry | Grand Lodge of Arkansas | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

'One battle over, but the war continues,' by Bro. Derek Gordon

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The following is reprinted from the website of Bro. Derek Gordon.

One Battle Is Over, But The War Is Not

A great man and Mason, who was overshadowed by the three-term Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, stated: “Carry the battle to them. Don’t let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don’t ever apologize for anything.” Harry S. Truman, a native of Missouri, was not from a political elite family. In fact, this pivotal man came from a farming family. He achieved an end to World War II after approving the use of two nuclear weapons on the Rising Sun of the Empire of Japan.

Many of us don’t realize how much power we have by defying the status quo and standing up for what’s right in life. We come from all sorts of families; I grew up in a blue-collar household. Certainly, we don’t grow up thinking we can drop a figurative nuclear weapon. But, there are times when each one of us must stand strong to shine that bright spotlight on those harming what we all stand for.

However, when we are leading a resistance, it is futile to continue a long battle that will continue to degrade into a slanderous quagmire. There would be nothing to gain from doing so. And, it would hinder one’s own desire to introduce change of disgusting policies designed to destroy those who defy the corrupt leaders; and it would bring about a notion that the fight isn’t as righteous as it truly is.

I stood down against the Arkansas Oligarchy in an effort to allow change to foster. Unfortunately for the time being, the reaction from the leadership is to portray me as a liar, a cheat, and a scoundrel. Some will believe their shallow attempts, but many will see the holes in the points they make. Every comment I made I offered proof. Each comment their cronies made have been backed up with more libelous statements.

A post below discussed that I resigned and did not expel myself. Accusations are rampant that I hid information. I would appreciate it if the oligarchy would provide the documentation. Further, I requested written documentation from the U.S.P.S. that there were not attempted deliveries between April 14th, 2010 and May 3rd, 2010. A phone call confirmed this; however, I feel such documentation added atop my continually-growing pile would be a wonderful addition.

The war against the evil lurking at 700 Scott St. in Little Rock will continue as the deep-rooted unprofessional ideologies are perpetuated by the leadership. There are many more abused Arkansas Masons who are just realizing how important it is to speak out. Once again, I point to the article detailing my life as a Mason in Arkansas and the provided phone logs. I’ve tried civil and professional means and have continually offered to let the issue end. I tell you, Grand Lodge, you still are playing a game that you miscalculate and under appreciate the importance of. I challenge those in charge to meet on neutral ground to end the matter professionally, orderly, and most important, as Masons “meeting on the level” would expect.

“It is important to fight, and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then can evil be kept at bay, though never quite eradicated.” — Albus Dumbledore; J.K. Rowling, The Half-blood Prince

Masons | Masonic Trial | Derek Gordon | Freemasonry | Grand Lodge of Arkansas | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Is Freemasonry 'just as good' as Christianity?

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The Burning Taper received the following email a few days ago. Anyone like to take a shot at answering this woman's questions?
sir, as a Christian I've always been troubled with the mason being "yoked"as it would seem to non believers, which (to me) would give the non believer the inference that his religion is just as good as Christianity. The "all roads lead to the top" line would sorta fit in that category also would it not?.. Unless Jesus lied, His way is the only way to heaven, so why would the Craft allow the impression that there's more than one way? As such, how could a Christian remain in the bond with non believers without abandoning his stance on wittnessing,contending for the faith etc.?? curious.Appreciate any response. Because late in life my uncles ,for instance, finally had great difficulty remaining in the lodge ,especially, after their dedication to the church/knowledge increased.
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Guess who's coming to dinner?

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It seems many rank-and-file Masons, in many locales, are becoming more and more fed up with the actions of Grand Lodge leaders.

This short article was sent to The Burning Taper recently. The author wishes to remain anonymous, for fear of retribution for reporting events and expressing his opinion.


Arizona Grand Lodge Annual Communication began with the Royal Banquet on Wednesday evening, June 2, 2010 prior to the official opening of proceedings on Thursday morning.

The Head Table consisted of Arizona Grand Lodge officers and their wives. Seated near them were the visiting dignitaries representing various Masonic grand lodge jurisidictions. There were 13 listed on the list handed out to all attending members. Most were "line" officers representing their State or jurisdiction with two currently sitting grand masters.

The two grand masters attending the Banquet were Most Worshipful Martin E. Warren, Grand Master of Masons from the Grand Lodge, F&AM of Arkansas, and Most Worshipful Lewis R. Brent, Grand Master of Masons from the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Arizona. They were not seated at the same table.

When the Grand Lodge opened in Due Form in the 3rd Degree on Thursday morning the MW Lewis R. Brent from Prince Hall was present, but the MW Martin E. Warren was conspicuously absent. He was not seen in any of the subsequent tiled lodge meetings all day Friday or on Saturday.

It is the custom of the Grand Lodge that, when a pedestal officer (Grand Master, Senior Warden and Junior Warden) leave their stations during the proceedings that they place the Jewel of their office on one of the brothers in the room.

Several times during the proceedings on both days, the Senior Grand Warden Brook Cunningbrook chose a highly decorated Phoenix policeman, who is a member of one of the Arizona F&AM lodges and had been shot in the line of duty, to sit high on the chair located on a pedestal in the West to replace him temporarily. He is black.

There were two other black members of Arizona F&AM lodges present and the Senior Grand Warden had them also replace him in the West. It is quite an honor to do this.

In this case, in my opinion anyway, it was kind of an "in your face" type of gesture to some of the members of the Arizona jurisdiction who have moved to Arizona from one of the 10 states that do not recognize Prince Hall and have complained about having to sit in a lodge with a black man. Whether it was directed towards the Grand Master of Arkansas, I can only speculate.

What's interesting about this is that the Grand Master of Arkansas spent the money to fly to Arizona only to have dinner. Since it is customary for Grand Lodges to pay for the travel expenses of their grand masters, I wonder if the brethren of the Grand Lodge of Arkansas got their monies worth. Since he did not attend any of the business meetings by sitting in a tiled lodge with a black man but only attended the social functions, it seems to me that he spent a lot of money just for a free dinner and drinks, even if the cost came out of his own pocket.

This obviously was an example of the kind of “Imperial Leadership” prevalent in many jurisdictions and is not restricted to Arkansas alone.

Masons | Masonic Racism | Prince Hall Freemasonry | Freemasonry | Grand Lodge of Arkansas| Grand Lodge of Arizona | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

28 Kasım 2012 Çarşamba

India’s Gay Community Comes Out of the Closet

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Don't tell Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown and their fellow Christofascists, but even in India - a country targeted by the National Organization for Marriage for fanning homophobia and attacking Starbucks for its pro-gay positions - gay rights are advancing.  Part of the rise of gay rights correlates to the repeal of the British rule era Section 377 of the 1860 Penal Code, but in India education levels are soaring and, of course, access to the Internet make it even more difficult to keep the populace uninformed and ignorant on LGBT issues.  An article in Newsweek looks at the in some ways rapid changes in attitudes in India.  Here are some excerpts:
On a sunny Sunday afternoon, Mumbai’s western suburb of Bandra—home to observant middle-class Roman Catholic and Sunni Muslim families—is packed with people strolling the seaside promenades. The main streets are abuzz with vendors selling cheap shoes and colorful scarves. On the quieter, tree-lined lanes, customers visit specialty boutiques.

Down the 16th Road, a rainbow flag hangs outside one such store: D’kloset. On its exterior, there is a mural of a man pulling another out of a closet. “No, no,” the latter says. “I’m not coming out.” D’kloset owner Inder Vhatwar will tell you that it is time for gay people in India to step out of the closet that has imprisoned them for more than a century.

Businesses targeted at gays, such as D’kloset, are still rare in India, but it is significant that such enterprises are opening at all in this largely conservative country, where until 2009 same-sex relations were considered a crime. “When I opened the store I thought that religious groups would come and break the glass,” said Vhatwar, who trained as a fashion designer in London. “But nothing happened.”
In the 149 years since homosexuality was outlawed by India’s colonial British administration, no government had the courage to repeal the law. That was left to the Delhi High Court: on July 2, 2009, the court decriminalized same-sex intercourse in a landmark case commonly referred to as 377, a reference to a section of the 1860 Penal Code that bans sexual activity “against the order of nature.” The decision was appealed earlier this year in the Supreme Court, which heard objections from 10 social and religious organizations.

Even if the decision is upheld—as gay-rights groups and legal experts think it will be—India’s gays and lesbians will still not have the same rights as heterosexuals. They will have no protection against discrimination at work or school, or when buying or renting a house. Same-sex marriage will still not be legal, nor will adoption. Such advances will require new laws from India’s parliament—and no one expects that to happen any time soon.
Still, after more than a century of being spurned by their families, reviled in public and harassed by police, India’s gays and their supporters say the 377 ruling is encouraging a gradual emergence from the shadows. “They’re not so open with their families yet, but they feel relatively more free now,” said Anand Grover, lawyer and director of the Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit. While the situation remains difficult for many homosexuals, particularly in rural areas, Grover points to the new gay tourism market, the spread of queer parties at nightclubs, and the rising divorce rate among gay men who had previously been pressured to marry women.
There are indeed signs of a transition underway in India. Gay-themed businesses are opening in areas where they once would not have dared to flaunt their sexuality. In 2011, the soap opera Maryada: Lekin Kab Tak? (Honor: But at What Cost?) became the first TV serial to feature an openly gay character. Gay protesters have jettisoned the masks they used to protect their identities during equal-rights marches. Talk shows feature questions about homosexuality and venues host events explicitly marketed for gays and lesbians.There are no official estimates of how many of India’s 1.2 billion people are gay or lesbian.  .   .  .  .  The Humsafar Trust, an NGO promoting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) rights, puts the number at more than 70 million. Even before the 377 ruling, the most cosmopolitan among them had already started to go public. In 2008, fashion designer Sanjay Malhotra launched Indjapink, an online gay travel agency.

The Internet has been big in helping gay people find each other, gradually replacing cruising for partners in parks and public toilets. Websites like Facebook and guys4men.com have become the best way to find a gay sex partner, join gay social events, and participate in a LGBT community that is clearly tired of hiding.

The greatest push for LGBT openness is happening among India’s cultural elite, in the realms of academic and literature. This year, the government-run Indira Gandhi National Open University—the largest higher-learning institute in India—launched a post-graduate diploma program in Women’s and Gender studies, which includes courses on queer cinema, masculinity, and gender on television. 

For many gays in India, the most important challenges begin closer to home—at home, actually. At the Humsafar Trust headquarters in Mumbai, many people arrive asking for advice and support in coming out. “A lot of people who meet up here are not ‘out’ to their families,” says Ankur Srivastava, from the youth group Yaariyan. He adds that it’s even harder for women, who have their own group called Umang. “It’s not that men have it easy, but many women don’t even have a chance,” Srivastava says. “They’re told that their first duty is to watch their husbands.”
Despite the difficulties, India’s gays and lesbians are trying to stay positive. There is evidence that the mainstream media and government would support the gay cause in the unlikely event that the Supreme Court refuses to uphold the 377 ruling. In February, a lawyer for the Home Ministry told the Supreme Court that homosexuality was immoral. Within a few hours, the ministry released a statement calling his word choice a “miscommunication” and declared he had been reading an outmoded statement. Several days later, the attorney general said that the federal government was not opposed to gay rights, and called the 1860 ban a law imposed by British colonialism and unreflective of Indian values. Lawyer Anand Grover agrees: “India never had a problem with homosexuality” before the arrival of Victorian-era Christianity in the 19th century, he says, noting that same-sex practices were tolerated in the culture when the British arrived.
Needless to say, I applaud the advances in India and hope they continue and increase in their pace.  As for the hate merchants at NOM, I won't be shedding any tears at seeing their ground for sowing anti-gay hatred in India becoming less and less fertile.

Consumer Fraud Lawsuit Filed Against "Ex-Gay" Therapy Group in New Jersey

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I have long believed that the fastest way to kill off and close down fraudulent "ex-gay" ministries and unethical Christian therapists is through lawsuits.  Lawsuits that sue these quacks for fraud or seek to recover damages for harm done to victims of these programs who either entered them voluntarily or who were forced into them by family or churches.  Thankfully, such a lawsuit has been filed in New Jersey against Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing ("JONAH"), Arthur Goldberg, the group's ex-felon founder (working with Wayne Besen I helped expose Goldberg's felony conviction for securities fraud and his disbarment), and a counselor for the group, Alan Downing.  The lawsuit alleges that the group violated New Jersey's Consumer Fraud Act because it claims it can "cure" gays despite the contrary findings of the American Psychological Association and every other legitimate medical and mental health association.  Metro Weekly has details.  Here are excerpts:
The fight against "ex-gay" conversion therapy continued in New Jersey today, where former patients of a group that promised to convert people from gay to straight filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of New Jersey.

Four young men and two of their parents filed the lawsuit against the founder of Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), Arthur Goldberg, and a counselor for the group, Alan Downing, alleging that the group violated New Jersey's Consumer Fraud Act by claiming that they could "cure" gay people of their homosexuality.

Represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, and Lite DePalma Greenberg, the plaintiffs' lawsuit is the first to sue a practitioner of conversion therapy on the grounds of providing fraudulent services.

The complaint alleges that, among other things, the plaintiffs were lured into believing "reparative therapy" could make them straight, spending thousands of dollars in the process while enduring abusive practices at the hands of Goldberg and Downing. Such practices have long been discredited by therapists as amounting to abuse.

Specifically, the complaint says that the plaintiffs were instructed to remove their clothing during individual and group therapy sessions. They were also instructed to cuddle with other same-sex patients and counselors as well as go to gyms and bath houses in order to be nude around father figures. Subjected to verbal abuse that included being called names like "faggots" and "homos" during mock locker room scenarios, some were also told to beat effigies of their mothers with tennis rackets.

"JONAH profits off of shameful and dangerous attempts to fix something that isn’t broken," said Christine Sun, SPLC deputy legal director, in a statement. "Despite the consensus of mainstream professional organizations that conversion therapy doesn't work, this racket continues to scam vulnerable gay men and lesbians out of thousands of dollars and inflicts significant harm on them."

According to SPLC, JONAH was originally known as Jews Offering New Alternatives for Homosexuality. Its founder, Arthur Goldberg, is a former Wall Street executive and attorney and was disbarred after being convicted of three counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the federal government. After being released from prison, he founded JONAH in 1999.

The New York Times reports that neither Goldberg nor Downing are subject to censure from medicial associations because they are not licensed therapists.

In October, SPLC also filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation against Paul McNulty, a state licensed clinical social worker who practices reparative therapy.

One can only hope that many more lawsuits of this type are filed and that the ultimately extend to church affiliated snake oil "ministries.

Fools Errand in Afghanistan: $861 Million Spirited Out of Country

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Warlords, constant civil strife and utter corruption and graft have been the way of life in Afghanistan for centuries, if not several millennium.  These facts ought to have been apparent to anyone who bothered to make the slightest amount of due diligence before throwing billions of dollars and thousands of American lives down a proverbial rat hole.  Such minimal due diligence would be expecting too much from the cretinous George W. Bush, the power mad Dick Cheney and the hubris filled senior American military leadership.  The examples of the magnitude of America's fools errand in Afghanistan just continue to grow despite the disingenuous, face saving lies and bullshit by the senior military leadership and politicians who refuse to admit that they made a huge and deadly error.  The Virginia Pilot is reporting today that $861 million in foreign aid/loans was spirited out of Afghanistan by corrupt Afghan bankers and officials.  Realistically, the amounts of money stolen is likely much higher. Here are highlights:
Hundreds of millions of dollars from Kabul Bank were spirited out of Afghanistan - some smuggled in airline food trays - to bank accounts in more than two dozen countries, according to an independent review released on Wednesday about massive fraud that led to the collapse of the nation's largest financial institution.

The report, which was financed by international donors, offers new details about how the men at Kabul Bank and their friends and relatives got rich off $861 million in fraudulent loans in what the International Monetary Fund has called a Ponzi scheme that used customer deposits and operated under nascent banking oversight in the war-torn country.
The report describes Kabul Bank as a sophisticated operation with one set of books for the eyes of regulators and another in the back room that logged how those running the bank and others were fattening their wallets.
Loans were made, but rarely repaid. Borrowers took out loans to pay back loans. Company documents and financial statements were fabricated. The bank's credit department used more than 100 corporate stamps for fake companies to make documents look authentic. The bank operated some of its more than 100 branches without a permit from the government.
The 87-page report, which was conducted to satisfy one of several benchmarks the IMF asked the Afghan government to meet in cleaning up the scandal, points to poor oversight by Afghan banking regulators, political interference in the criminal investigation and activities by a special judicial tribunal hearing the case that it said were "well outside the legal norms of criminal procedure."
The Kabul Bank scandal is a saga about money-grabbing, weak banking oversight, lax prosecution, nepotism, political contributions and fraud. The cast of characters includes a poker-playing bank chairman, an Afghan central bank chairman who feared his life was endangered and fled to the U.S., the wealthy brothers of the Afghan president and vice president, and bank shareholders - some who bought posh properties in Dubai and spent lavishly on themselves and their circle of friends and relatives.

There's much more in the lengthy story and little of it is good.  Meanwhile, another American has lost his life in this fiasco:

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.  Cpl. Christopher M. Monahan Jr., 25, of Island Heights, N.J., died Nov. 26 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to Combat Logistics Battalion 2, Combat Logistics Regiment 2, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

When will the American public demand that this idiocy stop?  And if the congressional GOP is serious about cutting the budget deficit, an immediate end to all funding for Afghanistan would be a good starting point. 

Wal-Mart’s Strategy of Deniability of Responsibility

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I noted recently the horrific fire in a garment factory in Bangladesh that claimed well over 100 lives - likely mostly women and children.  One of the principal clients of the sweat shop fire trap is Wal-Mart, a company that has long cut corners on adequate pay for its workers, shifted purchasing from American factories to China and third world nations, and which I am sure applauds the Republican Party quest to gut meaningful regulations on business and block unionization by employees.  In short, Wal-Mart symbolizes the GOP quest to return America to the state that employees faced during the Gilded Age, the excesses of which gave rise to the progressive movement in America.  A column in the Washington Post looks at Wal-Mart's efforts to shift blame and deny responsibility for the horror that happened in Bangladesh.  Here are excerpts: 
Bangladesh is half a world away from Bentonville, the Arkansas city where Wal-Mart is headquartered. This week, Wal-Mart surely wishes it were farther away than that.

Over the weekend, a horrific fire swept through a Bangladesh clothing factory, killing more than 100 workers, many of whose bodies were burnt so badly that they could not be identified. In its gruesome particulars — locked doors, no emergency exits, workers leaping to their deaths — the blaze seems a ghastly centennial reenactment of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire of 1911, when 146 workers similarly jumped to their deaths or were incinerated after they found the exit doors were locked.

The signal difference between the two fires is location. The Triangle building was located directly off New York’s Washington Square. Thousands watched the appalling spectacle of young workers leaping to the sidewalks 10 stories down; reporters and photographers were quickly on the scene. It’s not likely, however, that the Bangladesh disaster was witnessed by anyone from either the United States or Europe — the two markets for which the clothes made inside that factory were destined. For that, at least, Wal-Mart should consider itself fortunate.

If this were an isolated incident of Wal-Mart denying responsibility for the conditions under which the people who make and move its products labor, then the Bangladeshi disaster wouldn’t reflect quite so badly on the company. But the very essence of the Wal-Mart system is to employ thousands upon thousands of workers through contractors and subcontractors and sub-subcontractors, who are compelled by Wal-Mart’s market power and its demand for low prices to cut corners and skimp on safety. And because Wal-Mart isn’t the employer of record for these workers, the company can disavow responsibility for their conditions of work.

This system isn’t reserved just for workers in faraway lands: Tens of thousands of American workers labor under similar arrangements. Many are employed at little more than the minimum wage in the massive warehouses in the inland exurbs of Los Angeles, where Wal-Mart’s imports from Asia are trucked from the city’s harbor to be sorted and packaged and put on the trucks and trains that take them to Wal-Mart stores for a thousand miles around.

The warehouses are run by logistics companies with which Wal-Mart contracts, and most of the workers are employed by some of the 200-plus temporary employment companies that have sprung up in the area .  .  .  . Wal-Mart itself was not cited. That’s the beauty of its chain of deniability.

A small band of these warehouse workers has been demonstrating for the past couple of months to bring attention to the bizarrely contingent nature of their employment and the abuses that flow from it. Their numbers were augmented Friday by actual Wal-Mart employees in stores around the nation, calling attention to the everyday low wages and absence of benefits that the vast majority of the company’s 1.4 million U.S. employees receive.

Other discount retailers — notably Costco and Trader Joe’s — pay their workers far more, train them more extensively, have much lower rates of turnover and much higher rates of sales per employee, according to a Harvard Business Review article by Zeynep Ton of the MIT Sloan School of Management. Costco is a very profitable business, but Wal-Mart maintains an even higher profit margin, which it achieves by underpaying its employees.
But Wal-Mart neither pays its own nor takes responsibility for those who make and move its wares. For America’s largest private-sector employer, the emergency exits are always open.

Meanwhile, the Walton family members wallow in billions of dollars of wealth.  They obviously view their employees and those who indirectly work for their company as little better than serfs.

Are Republicans Still Trying to Trash the Economy?

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During the first four years of Barack Obama's presidency, the Congressional Republicans did everything possible to obstruct measures that would have helped American workers and families and lessened the economic turn down.  In the GOP's sick mind, it was better to harm millions of Americans than to allow Obama to be successful.  Now, in the wrangling over what must be done to keep the U.S. government from going over the "fiscal cliff" it seems that the GOP is continuing to seek to trash the economy at the expense of the country's average citizens.  In today's GOP, the party always trumps the best interests of the nation.  But, some would ask why would the GOP do this?  The answer is found in an article by David Frum in CNN that looks at the GOP's bleak future if Obama and the Democrats are perceived as bring about a growing economy.  My prediction?  The Congressional GOP will seek to push the country off the "fiscal cliff" for partisan gain.  Here are highlights:
Here's the next thing the Republican party needs to rethink. What does it say if and when the United States returns to prosperity?

For five years, U.S. politics have been shaped by economic hardship. In 2008 and 2010, voters rejected the party in power, booting Republicans out of the White House, and then sweeping Democrats out of Congress.
Mitt Romney campaigned in 2012 on the slogan, "Obama isn't working." President Obama responded by attacking Romney as out of touch, assuming (probably correctly) that he could not win by running on his record.
But the indicators are suggesting that by 2013 and 2014, the Obama record will begin to look a lot better, assuming, that is, that the two parties in Washington don't recklessly push the country off the fiscal cliff at the end of the year.
The nation's economy added 171,000 jobs in October 2012, for a total of almost 700,000 in the four months before Election Day. More than half the jobs lost in the crash of 2008-2009 have now been recovered, even as public-sector employment has shrunk by a net 500,000.
As household debt burdens become lighter, consumers express more confidence. They are allowing themselves to spend a little more. They are even buying new homes again. Housing starts in October 2012 rose to a level 41.9% over a year before.
Accelerating economic activity is rapidly reducing the budget deficit. The deficit has contracted since 2009 at the fastest rate since the end of World War II, faster even than during the late 1990s boom.
As they do glimpse that better future, two things will happen in politics:
1) President Obama will begin to claim more credit. In 2012, the word "stimulus" went unmentioned by Democrats. It was Republicans who tried to make political use of the $800 billion spent on job creation in 2009-2011. In 2013-2014, however, the shoe may suddenly rematerialize on the other foot.
2) Republicans will discover that their old "Obama isn't working" theme has become obsolete. By 2014, again assuming that Congress does not leap off the fiscal cliff, it will likely look as if Obama is working. What then? If negative messaging failed in 2012, it will fail bigger in 2014.
For too long, the Republicans have predicted apocalypse, debt crisis, the loss of freedom, the overthrow of the constitution. As the economy improves, that doom-saying will seem even more out of touch than ever.


27 Kasım 2012 Salı

The rule of three

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Three important photographers died this week.

  • AP Photographer Walt Zeboski Dies at Age 83
  • Canadian photographer Arnaud Maggs dead at age 86
  • Cornel Lucas, Photographer Whose Portraits Defined Film Stars, Dies at 92

Of the three, I am best acquainted with the work of Walt Zeboski. His haunting photo of Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme comes to mind; as do his many photos of Ronald Regan.

I know Cornel Lucas for his black and white portrait of Joan Callins, which I actually recreated (poorly) for a high school photography class back in the 70s.

Joan-Collins-in-1953-001

I had planned on posting on Walt Zeboski, but then my inbox filled up with obituary notices. All were important to photography. All should be remembered.

Technorati Tags: Obituaries,Photography
  • Cornel Lucas, Photographer Whose Portraits Defined Film Stars, Dies at 92 (nytimes.com)
  • Cornel Lucas obituary (guardian.co.uk)
  • AP Photographer Walt Zeboski Dies at Age 83 (abcnews.go.com)
  • Arnaud Maggs, 1926 to 2012 (appliedartsmag.com)

Photography - Dust and Grooves

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KCET’s Artbound blog has an interesting article by Oliver Wang called Record Collectors in Their Natural Habitats: Eilon Paz Photographs Vinyl Addicts in the Wild. Wang profiles photographer Eilon Paz about his successful Kickstarter photography project called Dust and Grooves.

Cut Chemist, Music producer and a vinyl record collector from Los Angeles, CA photographed with his vinyl collection at his home for Dust & Grooves. © Copyright - Eilon Paz - www.dustandgrooves.comPaz is out in Los Angeles as part of the West Tour "tour" for his Dust & Grooves (D&G) project. D&G began when Paz relocated from his home country of Israel to New York City in 2008. While he makes his living shooting mostly portraiture, he wanted to find a side project to hold his interest. As a record fanatic himself, Paz gravitated to other vinyl junkies and began with shooting Brazilian record collector and store owner Joel Oliveria four years ago

What a fascinating idea for a photography project. I ought to hook him up with my son.

Technorati Tags: Photography,Art,Collecting,Record Collecting,KCET

Evangelicalism, Continental Philosophy, and the Deconstructed Church

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Thanks to a wonderful invitation from philosopher Jack Caputo, I spent much of last week at Syracuse University participating in The Future of the Continental Philosophy of Religion conference.  
This was quite the event, a gathering of philosophers from the US and UK who specialize in distinctive readings of Hegel, Kierkegaard, Merleau-Ponty, Derrida, Deleuze and the like along with more recent thinkers like Zizek and Meillassoux (you can check out the conference program).  I was pleased to hear Catherine Malabou, Thomas Altizer, and Merold Westphol interacting in  sessions.  With Harvey Cox, Clayton Crockett, and Philip Goodchild in the mix, it was really quite an occasion. 
I was invited to a session focused on Peter Rollins, what I called "the phenomenon of Peter Rollins," as a means to explore one development in the Continental Philosophy of Religion.  When I was invited to present, my follow up email to Jack Caputo said something like,"You realize I'm a sociologist and not a philosopher, right?"  They were quite willing to introduce a multi-disciplinary dialogue that described not only with the ideas of Peter Rollins but what he may represent as actions and movements in our broader religious context. With thirty minutes to share, I tried to unpack my best understanding of how Peter Rollins lies along a long path of renegotiating conservative Christianity that has been brewing for almost two decades.

Most of us know that the spectacular success of Evangelicalism in the 1970s through the 1990s created a self-sustaining Evangelical world—and that these successes created a backlash. Evangelical leaders came to seek ways to overcome the churched/non-churched divide. But the journey hasn’t been smooth.

As Evangelicals became attentive to creating a closed “Christian culture,” many disaffected evangelicals left their churches, becoming critics rather than compliant members. Listening to criticism from outside, atheistic thinkers resourced their critique. There emerged a number of Christian readers of secular philosophy who were pleased to take up an aggressive questioning of the certainty, “truth,” and the resulting morality and politics that came with it. Much of the underlying tone of such criticism draws on a hermeneutics of suspicion with its post-Marx, post-Nietzsche, and post-Freud sensibilities. Notions and paradigms promoted by these new "Christian" writers and thinkers is buttressed and often inspired directly by Continental Philosophy.

Attention to "postmodern thinkers" complimented a broader surge of interest in “postmodern philosophy” among Evangelical seminarians and church leaders. Christian publishers are still catching up to this hunger, producing more books building on recent philosophical work (e.g., Philosophy and Theology series from Continuum / T&T Clark and Church and Postmodern Culture series from Baker Publishing Group). In practice, a growing number of evangelical church leaders are moving from simple “Bible Study” to openly engaging Continental Philosophy through their books and concepts in small gatherings. On my twitter feed yesterday, I mentioned Gianni Vattimo's work, and that initiated a stream of follow-up discussions with fellow tweeps who pay attention to theology and religion. 
This engagement with such deeply intellectual work represents a significant shift. Mark Noll in his Scandal of the Evangelical Mind articulated the historical basis for anti-intellectualism among Ameircan Evangelicals. Now we are seeing more educated evangelicals who are finding their religious frameworks “lag” behind the theoretical or epistemological/ontological sophistication of their schooling. They have fundamental critiques of what they see as “modern” ways of reading the bible (hermeneutics), organizing the church (ecclesiology), and assessing morality and devotion (spiritual formation) and are forming new types of Christian gatherings to express their developing values.
Continental philosophy "works" because it involves thinkers whose work invokes a sustained social critique. Continental philosophy is concerned with structures, underlying structures of society (often drawn from Marxist orientations) and underlying structures of the psyche (often drawn from Freudian orientations). A pursuit of uncovering the working of underlying, non-conscious, structures, cultivates observations that eventually can move to practical efforts in what to talk to people about (preaching), what humans are to become (evangelism and discipleship), how community is to be lived together (ecclesiology and “loving one’s neighbor”), and how to act in the world (duty to God and others). These writings provide resources for being prophetic to the church and to the world.

These Christian critics have been helped also by the “religious turn” in Continental Philosophy and the greater availability of religious thinkers in this vein as primary and secondary works were made more available at the same time as the disaffection and pursuit of alternative frameworks happened among evangelicals. This includes writings from and about Jacques Derrida, Jurgen Habermas, Rene Girard, Jon-Luc Marion, Emmanual Levinas, Paul Ricoeur, Jean-Luc Nancy -- Slavoj Žižek,, Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, Gianni Vattimo). Jack Caputos’s appropriation of Derrida, Levinas’s rejection of Heidegger, Marion’s religious reinterpretation of phenemenologists, and more emerge amidst this re-thinking, aggressively incorporating insights from philosophers who engage in distinctive readings of Hegel, Kierkegaard, Marx, Freud, Husserl, and Heidegger.

In the conference, I dared to raise Peter Rollins to a more significant level by placing him in a broader socio-historical context. Trained in post-structural philosophy, with a PhD from Queens University in Northern Ireland,  Rollins intellectually stimulating style of speaking, writing, and consulting fits efforts to flesh out Christianity in new ways that are sensitive to societal shifts and emerging sensibilities. In other words, the happenings around his person are a manifestation of changes across mainstream Christianity. So while Peter Rollins is an interesting person in and of himself, I moved away from assuming that compelling ideas from a single, charismatic leader initiates social change. Instead, Peter Rollins unique “ministry” (which I place in quotes) is an interesting and timely development of American Christianity that finds resonance in the cumulative contradictions of modern Evangelicalism.

I suspect that Continental Philosophy is underpinning a profound reworking of theological questions including what is the church (ecclesiology), what it means to be human (anthropology), and how life is to be lived (ethics) -- at least for a significant segment of American Christians. Peter Rollins’s appropriation of Continental Philosophy fuels provocative practices in the form of preaching and new types of groups among those who resonate with his message.  And it’s the practice of new religious gatherings (like "Pub Churches") that especially attracts the interest of this sociologist.