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cleanhippie

cleanhippie's Journal
cleanhippie's Journal
February 11, 2012

If you agree that corporations are not people, then you must also agree that religious organizations

are not people either. The result of this is that non-people corporations and religious organizations do not have Constitutional rights.

No one persons freedom of religion would be infringed by ensuring employers (in this case, it was a religious organization) must abide by the law. No individual Catholic that is opposed to contraception would ever be forced to dispense or take it, ergo no civil liberty infringement.

I think the Dems/Liberals missed a big opportunity to continue with the "corporations are not people" meme and give it more traction for a Constitutional Amendment.

February 10, 2012

Today was a very special day.

I got a bunch of hearts. Wow. For a poster who is as despised as much as I am (you should see the remarks by jury members when I alert on a post. Unbelievable.) I was really touched that several of you gave me hearts. I mean, they had to come from my compatriots here, right?

Thanks brothers and sisters. I really appreciate it.

February 9, 2012

Chopra...explained.

February 1, 2012

There was an armed home invasion across the street from my house two nights ago.

No one was hurt, but they did put the people living there down on the ground, took cell phones, wallets, ransacked the place...


It happens. Yes, it can happen to you. Or me.

Am I still just a paranoid gun nut for having a way to protect myself and my family from savages like this? Please justify your answer of you say yes.

February 1, 2012

How respectable is a degree in Theology?

Your opinions, please. And your reasons why or why not.

February 1, 2012

Christian Women Taking Back 'Feminism'

A new kind of feminist is on the rise, one that embraces Christianity and a calling in politics, the boardroom or social causes. Led by women like Sarah Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann, these conservative Christians are taking a fresh approach to feminism.

“The term ‘feminism’ has been hijacked by the secular feminist movement,” says Betsy Hart, a syndicated columnist for Scripps Howard News Service and author of It Takes a Parent. “Many people – including Christians and a lot of young, secular women – associate traditional feminism with very angry, men-hating, strident, unattractive and unhappy women.”

But today, Christian women like Palin and Bachmann are redefining a feminist as a woman who is conservative and pro-life, who has a calling in the workplace, but who also embraces her role as a Christian wife and mother.

In a 2010 speech, Palin drew a connection between herself and feminists, but reconfigured the term to mean a self-sufficient, pro-life Christian who believes being a woman is a source of her success. Bachmann has said she went into politics partly because of her woman’s intuition.

This fledging movement has more and more Christian conservative women looking back to feminism’s early roots and finding a lot to admire and emulate.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-women-taking-back-feminism-55280/


I'm posting this to contrast another recently posted article on the same topic that paints this movement as something being championed by rational, intelligent, progressive christian women. That seems to be hardly the case.

If Palin and Bachman are the role models for this emergence of feminist christian women, I think it is doomed to fail.
February 1, 2012

Theocracy on the move in Indiana

Indiana's Republican-controlled Senate yesterday passed a bill that would allow for the teaching of creationism in schools. The bill's sponsor, Republican State Senator Dennis Kruse, tells the Indianapolis Star that he knows the Supreme Court ruled that unconstitutional back in 1987, but so what? "This is a different Supreme Court," he tells the paper. "This Supreme Court could rule differently."

The Senate minority leader managed to amend the bill so that it mandates teaching theories from several religions, including Scientology, if a school district chooses to add creationism to the curriculum. That might make religion-as-science less attractive for school districts around the state. It's the same kind of strategy that used by the Democratic minority in the Indiana House this week, when they managed to get drug-testing for lawmakers included in a bill to drug-test welfare recipients.

Senator Kruse is also pushing a bill to allow schools to open the day with the Lord's Prayer. As with his creationism bill, he's slipping religion into the classroom under the flag of choice, but that choice only goes so far. The school district gets to decide whether to "require" that creationism be taught. In an interview with the Christian Post, Kruse described the bill's origins:

"Pastors and members of my Sunday School class encouraged me to introduce the bill this year," said Indiana State Senator Dennis Kruse, author of SB 89, to CP.

"I have thought about introducing it over the last decade and decided not to do so until this year."


Republicans won control of the state legislature in the 2010 elections, and this year they're moving ahead in a hurry. Indiana, your time is now.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/01/10288354-theocracy-on-the-move-in-indiana



Nothing to see here folks, this is just a small, vocal minority that does not represent all christians. Move along, nothing to see...


Question: Why are my fellow DU'ers continually telling us non-believers that point out these type of things, that this is just a small minority of christians that does not represent all christians?

Yes I know that they do not represent all christians, but they ARE more than a small minority. They have taken over legislatures and control a lot of the government. Why are we being told to ignore them? They are a clear and present danger to every single one of us, and I see no reason why we should not be united in fighting the coming theocracy (unless a theocracy is what you really want).
February 1, 2012

Atheist Billboard Targets African Americans

There’s nothing on it now, but on Monday a billboard on Interstate 35 at Illinois Avenue could be the talk of south Oak Cliff. That’s because its message will target black people who might consider becoming atheist.

“The question’s regarding doubt of religion. Do you really buy what you’re being told?” said Alix Jules, a member of African Americans for Humanism, a national organization of non-believers. In July, Jules was featured in a hot-button Ebony magazine article discussing his decision to become an atheist. His face is also on the ad bound for the billboard. It will be alongside the famous free-thinker, historical writer and activist Langston Hughes.

“Can I believe in a God that will help me find my keys and win a ball game but allows hunger in places like Africa? Those are really big questions the church does not have answers to,” he said. The group picked the area because it is home to at least a dozen black churches. And it picked February because of Black History Month.

Marsalis Avenue Church of Christ is about a mile from where the billboard will be. Pastor David Lane welcomes the discussion but believes faith in the black community is part of a heritage.

--snip--

But Jules said the ad in Oak Cliff and those planned for six other major cities are meant to provoke thought, not discussion or even de-conversion. “It’s for the ones that really have doubt. Understand you are not alone,” he said.

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/atheist-billboard-targets-african-americans-013112#ixzz1l9AkBo5O






And some pics that AAH has put up in Harlem/NYC...






February 1, 2012

Scientists close to entering Vostok, Antarctica’s biggest subglacial lake

After drilling for two decades through more than two miles of antarctic ice, Russian scientists are on the verge of entering a vast, dark lake that hasn’t been touched by light for more than 20?million years.

Scientists are enormously excited about what life-forms might be found there but are equally worried about contaminating the lake with drilling fluids and bacteria, and the potentially explosive “de-gassing” of a body of water that has especially high concentrations of oxygen and nitrogen.

Reaching Lake Vostok would represent the first direct contact with what scientists now know is a web of more than 200 subglacial lakes in Antarctica — some of which existed when the continent was connected to Australia and was much warmer. They stay liquid because of heat from the core of the planet.

“This is a huge moment for science and exploration, breaking through to this enormous lake that we didn’t even know existed until the 1990s,” said John Priscu, a researcher at Montana State University who has long been involved in antarctic research, including a study of Vostok ice cores.

“If it goes well, a breakthrough opens up a whole new chapter in our understanding of our planet and possibly moons in our solar system and planets far beyond,” he said. “If it doesn’t go well, it casts a pall over the whole effort to explore this wet underside of Antarctica.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/scientists-close-to-entering-vostok-antarcticas-biggest-subglacial-lake/2012/01/27/gIQAbGX0fQ_story.html



Very, very cool. I wonder what new discoveries await?

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