July 31, 2014

Freedumb of Screech! Don't Tread on Us! And The South Shall Rise Again!

Interesting, the guy on the left wasn't hiding his face. It was once a disgrace to be linked with the KKK and JBS. Now it's out front...

July 31, 2014

Hope this is the appropriate group for this video.

Israelis: Who is Jesus to you?

Corey Gil-Shuster - May 18, 2014

People ask Israeli Jews questions. I go out and ask random people to answer.

I agree with the next to the last person, and found the last person fascinating and I want to find those texts.

Some of the earlier people in the video answering the question mirror the opinions of Jewish relations. When I asked them similar things, they were quite kind about the differences between Jews and Christians. They explained why they didn't need to 'repent' or be 'saved' and things like that.

While I'm no longer a 'card-carrying' Christian, no other DU group's SOP seems appropriate. I am an agnostic, and my family had more than half a dozen faiths and non-faith people but we only really believed in the Golden Rule. In many ways I am still a Christian.

I didn't want to post this in the 'Religion' forum. Despite the title of the video, this does not fit the SOP of the Jewish or I/P group or any specific religious group.

Let me know if you want it deleted or the title changed. I don't want this to be part of the ongoing I/P debate, so here it is where I think it's more likely to get a fair hearing about the issues of belief or 'non-belief' as group SOP allows.

July 31, 2014

They've been on edge since the annexation of Crimea. And it's not like it never happened before...

17 wars were fought between Poland (including the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) and Russia (including the Soviet Union).

When Hitler invaded them from the West, Stalin invaded them from the East. That's the one Americans remember, but the USSR held onto to them a long time after WW2. That's why they're in NATO.

Invasion of Poland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Poland

Note the Polish casualties in each event. More than we lost in a decade in Vietnam in a smaller country.

But it wasn't the first time:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Poland_%28disambiguation%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Soviet_War

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Poland

At one time, Russia and Poland fought Napoleon's Army and defeated the French Allied Army. A painting of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow which was the beginning of the end for his ambitions:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_invasion_of_Russia

That's a tough neighborhood:



They first among the first of the nations in NATO to call for assistance when Russia reclaimed Crimea, which was involved in another war on Poland:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1589_invasion_of_Poland

One might note the history between the Tatars and the Russians mentioned there. It is the percursor of much of what we've seen since, with biological warfare used by the Mongols, setting off the Black Death in Europe that killed 75% of the total population or 75 million depending on the source. All I know is that it changed things in Europe profoundly.

IMO, Americans are unable to understand these conflicts as they don't know the history. The situation appears bizarre and an aberration to the order established after WW2. The West has tried, for the best of reasons, to avoid another such war:



But it's been a short period of mixed peace in comparison to the history of the region. And I'm betting the people in that region were killing each other long before those wars mentioned in Wikipedia...


Well. going into all of that was fun for me, hope you enjoyed it too.

July 31, 2014

A little more: Fractals, The Hidden Dimension:

Published on Jun 4, 2013

What do movie special effects, the stock market, heart attacks and the rings of Saturn have in common?*

They all consist of fractals, irregular repeating shapes found in cloud formations,tree limbs, stalks of broccoli and craggy mountain ranges and even in the human heart.

Discovered by mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, they are the architecture used by nature.

*Will sound woo to some, but it's NOVA.

July 31, 2014

Same mathematical set as everthing:

My favorite musical representation:

It's micro and macro.

July 31, 2014

Forget it. The JAQ (just asking questions) session is over for now. And they are *legal* refugees:

Obama is enforcing the law - William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.

The LAW mandates that a hearing before a judge be held, it takes a year now, so speeding it all up makes perfect sense, more funds for the administration and enforcement of current law IS the solution according to law. And according to compassion this is the minimum response.

Before I forget to mention, the current refugee flow rate from Central America is double what it has been for years, so it is not the hair on fire situation it is made out to be, it is serious, but it can be managed with thoughtful response, and stemmed with thoughtful legislation that deals with all the broken parts of the immigration/refugee current hodgepodge of laws. The Senate bill held up by the Republicans is the long term solution, but no one wants to talk solutions, they all want to be outraged and set hair on fire over and over again. Seems America is addicted to self mutilation of thought by follicular arson.

Thank The Lord for the calm of Obama... again. The media propaganda campaign to shame Obama to go the border to do some sightseeing and for no other good reason anyone can mention, is an example of the idiocy faction always getting the megaphone.

The late 2008 legal amendment to the old law, to add protections for children specifically from these Central American countries who were being trafficked into America at the time it was a crisis, was written in a rush, was to protect against human and child trafficking. However, the definition of who is not a trafficked child and a refugee or an economic or war refugee was not well defined. Lawyers and judges are required to sort it out. Deportation personnel, judges, escorts, etc. are also required, exactly as the request from HLS outlines in detail.

So now the Republicans want Obama to ignore the law, one signed in the last days of the Bush years with bipartisan support, but that would be acting just exactly like a dictator?

Make up your creaking minds, is he a dictator or not, how do you get away with having it both ways all the creaking time, I should ask Captain Obvious, maybe he would know.

Obama wants funds to speed up the enforcement of the law, and to change the laws, but somehow that is outrageous, no way say the Republicans?

Unbelievable, the media is again ignoring the obvious idiocy of the only other party in a two party state... they have to, otherwise the whole media profit model goes down the drain.

Republicans love dictators, just not the ones not in their pure Christian cult. Are they are that the refugee children are likely all devout Catholics? Is the colour of their skin so offensive to them that they abandon all their Christian values so readily?

The bibles they clutch and the flags they stand in front up are cover for the gun they also clutch because the love of the gun and the love of hate they cling to over all else needs cover.

I love the rule of law, some not so much.

H.R. 7311 (110th): William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008

http://m.state.gov/md113178.htm

SEC. 212. INTERIM ASSISTANCE FOR CHILDREN.

(a) In General- Section 107(b)(1) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7105(b)(1)) is amended--

(1) in subparagraph (E)(i)(I), by inserting ‘or is unable to cooperate with such a request due to physical or psychological trauma’ before the semicolon; and

(2) by adding at the end the following:

‘(F) ELIGIBILITY FOR INTERIM ASSISTANCE OF CHILDREN-

‘(i) DETERMINATION- Upon receiving credible information that a child described in subparagraph (C)(ii)(I) who is seeking assistance under this paragraph may have been subjected to a severe form of trafficking in persons, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall promptly determine if the child is eligible for interim assistance under this paragraph. The Secretary shall have exclusive authority to make interim eligibility determinations under this clause. A determination of interim eligibility under this clause shall not affect the independent determination whether a child is a victim of a severe form of trafficking.

‘(ii) NOTIFICATION- The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall notify the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security not later than 24 hours after all interim eligibility determinations have been made under clause (i).

‘(iii) DURATION- Assistance under this paragraph may be provided to individuals determined to be eligible under clause (i) for a period of up to 90 days and may be extended for an additional 30 days.

‘(iv) LONG-TERM ASSISTANCE FOR CHILDREN-

‘(I) ELIGIBILITY DETERMINATION- Before the expiration of the period for interim assistance under clause (iii), the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall determine if the child referred to in clause (i) is eligible for assistance under this paragraph.

‘(II) CONSULTATION- In making a determination under subclause (I), the Secretary shall consult with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and nongovernmental organizations with expertise on victims of severe form of trafficking.

‘(III) LETTER OF ELIGIBILITY- If the Secretary, after receiving information the Secretary believes, taken as a whole, indicates that the child is eligible for assistance under this paragraph, the Secretary shall issue a letter of eligibility. The Secretary may not require that the child cooperate with law enforcement as a condition for receiving such letter of eligibility.

to Fred Sanders:

http://sync.democraticunderground.com/10025216542

Let's get something straight. The kind of child trafficking being discussed is the sex trade for girls and forced to serve as child soldiers (gang members) for boys. I can quote from the Bible how craven and wrong it is to hate these people, even if they weren't children. There is nothing being saved by opposing these refugees because there is no moral basis for that position.

There is a reason some may not have shown up at hearings, but no link was provided when the claim was first made. Many of the children were sent to live with extended family that are either legal residents or native born people, not in the same state they were found in and detained. This is what always occurs, they have sponsors.

Remember they are children who, just like native born children, do not have the ability to move about freely in society. They don't speak English. They don't have money to pay to go on buses or trains or planes to get to the courthouses which are often far away from where they have found a home. They do not drive or own cars. Would we give our kids a map and tell them to get to a courthouse?

It's insane to expect children who are not competent legally to take care of these matters. A number of adults could not manage it with those obstacles, or even less. Their caregivers may be facing financial and logistical problems in getting to court.
It's just mean and ignorant to make that an issue.

And guess what, with climate change there will be more refugees. The GOP and their fence can't keep them out. PBO will send back all he can, but follow the LAW first.

The Pentagon did a study in the 1970s predicting this was coming with global warming. They knew from the climate data collected that people would cross borders to live and there would be conflicts over land.

That is what we are seeing, it's not even political. And for what it's worth, the people screaming the loudest came from immigrant stock and most if not all, came for purely economic reasons, too. So they better get ready to roll with it.

The only comfort I can give to those wailing, 'There goes the neighborhood!' is that the natives of the Americas said that first!

When boats full of foreign people who didn't look right to them, had no papers or other tokens to explain their right to move into America, and refused to learn the language or the ways of the people who lived here first and then proceeded to act violently and break all the native laws for centuries, it was just the way it was. We don't have much moral right to wave people off.

JMHO...

July 31, 2014

Hello? 'fights that had happened regularly over the past year'? What's going on in Bryan?

It seemed boring when I visited family living there years ago.*

Why would a mob beat them, and at a McDonald's, no less?

Are violent mobs now the norm there?

I can't find online the original event, just the news about the lawsuit. I don't know what this was really about.

*"You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood ... back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame ... back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time – back home to the escapes of Time and Memory."

~ Thomas Wolfe in You Can't Go Home Again:

The novel tells the story of George Webber, a fledgling author, who writes a book that makes frequent references to his home town of Libya Hill. The book is a national success but the residents of the town, unhappy with what they view as Webber's distorted depiction of them, send the author menacing letters and death threats.[2][3]

Wolfe, as in many of his other novels, explores the changing American society of the 1920s/30s, including the stock market crash, the illusion of prosperity, and the unfair passing of time which prevents Webber ever being able to return "home again".

In parallel to Wolfe's relationship with America, the novel details his disillusionment with Germany during the rise of Nazism.[4][5]

Wolfe scholar Jon Dawson argues that the two themes are connected most firmly by Wolfe's critique of capitalism and comparison between the rise of capitalist enterprise in the United States in the 1920s and the rise of Fascism in Germany during the same period.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can%27t_Go_Home_Again

July 31, 2014

Women Under the Male Microscope

'Women should not laugh in public,' says Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister in morality speech



By Lizzie Dearden - 29 July 2014

Women should not laugh in public in Turkey, the Deputy Prime Minister has said in a speech on “moral corruption” in the country...

...“(The man) will not be a womaniser. He will be bound to his wife. He will love his children. (The woman) will know what is haram and not haram. She will not laugh in public. She will not be inviting in her attitudes and will protect her chasteness,” Mr Arınç said according to the paper...

Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, who is running against the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in August’s presidential elections, took to Twitter to argue against Mr Arınç‘s statement.

Turkey needed women to laugh, he said, and the country needs to hear laughter more than anything...

Turkey has historically been more progressive with women’s rights than neighbouring countries but recent changes and continuing problems with wage gaps, child brides, honour killings and domestic violence have prompted concerns by activists that the country is slipping backwards...

And Erdoğan wants to restrict abortion.



http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/women-should-not-laugh-in-public-says-turkeys-deputy-prime-minister-in-morality-speech-9635526.html#

Has the 'new' MRA movement gone global, or was it always in place, just cloaked better?

Perhaps the title of does not reflect the full context, as Arınç appeared to call on men to reform their behavior as well. To western eyes this is patronizing; he talks like a 'father figure.'

We know rightwing Christianity is being sold to other nations, such as Uganda and have joined with Russia's conservative church. As resources are becoming more scarce and there is more displacement of people, some are turning to the past to establish what they see as a more stable social model.

It's oppressive but easier to control people than a more egalitarian society. We read of people celebrating what they call a return to nature or community but some cases are little different than a cult in how women are treated.

It seems that women have put up with this or even supported it for so long, that only in more open social groups, are these suggestions of confining women being disputed. Because of greater numbers of women sharing experiences and calling for more universal and just solutions.

It seems that women just end up being the baseling to make it all work in society but get no respect.

July 31, 2014

Obama argues for humanity to Robots. They're still doing this:

July 30, 2014

That dog won't hunt anymore:

Wild horses couldn't drag a good word out of them...