Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Things Haven't Changed Much


Obama, Sovern, trustees of Columbia University found guilty.


"On Tuesday, May 18, the jury returned guilty verdicts against Obama, Michael Sovern, who was president of Columbia University during the period of time Obama supposedly attended, and the trustees of Columbia University, on all 17 counts of sedition, conspiracy, fraud and obstruction of justice."

This was done in a church, the ATLAH World Missionary Church in Harlem. The "trial" was presided over by the pastor,  James David Manning.

I just have to put my head in my hands and ask: Do these people realize what they're doing?

Here is a gen-u-ine, deep south, 1920's kangaroo court convened in New York on a set of obviously trumped-up charges against the POTUS, Barack Obama. Waving the 10th amendent around like a protective banner, they have taken the law into their own hands and reshaped it to suit their prejudices. They definitely prove why we need a rule of law, and a judiciary system to protect us from their organized mass hysteria. I find it very significant this was convened in a church, also proving the need for the separation of church and state.

Let's be clear on this: This is not law, it is persecution. This is not justice, but a vendetta. This is not a trial, but a lynching. They are not heroes; they are vigilantes.
"On Monday, May 24, Manning announced, “We the People spoke,” and said he was assembling a coalition to hand over the verdicts to the judiciary of the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the U.S. Attorney General.
Manning also noted, specifically for Sovern and Columbia University, he will be submitting to the New York State Bar, New York Attorney General, New York State Regents and Atlantic Schools Accreditation a demand that their license to operate an educational institution be revoked.
“Perhaps their first response will be to defend and reject."

What are they going to do when they're simply ignored? Saddle up, don white hoods, carry ropes and then gallop onto the White House, waving burning torches?

UPDATE:

Maybe I giving this more credence than it deserves. Dr. Manning's website is looney-tunes. The first thing you see is a baptist minister dressed like the pope--it's all about the incredible and wonderful Dr. Manning. When you read his credo and plan of action it's clear he's "directed by God" to create an ant-like theocratic state. That's what I get for not checking stuff before posting my opinion.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Memories of Montgomery 1963 / 1968

You had to smell the fear. Real, palpable fear from the whites all around me. I was living in an all-white neighborhood and attending an all-white school; and everybody was worried. Worried the marches and riots would come "here."

But most of all they were scared: scared that blacks would have the same civil rights, the same legal protections enjoyed by middle-class whites. Own the same kind of homes, attend the same kind of schools, hold the same kind of jobs. Practice the same professions. You could see it in their eyes, hear it in their voices when they talked about it. It would be the end of the white race.

The history of what happened, the reasons people of color marched, the harsh reprisals against them--including torture and murder--gives the lie to the Libertarians and their opposition to civil rights.

Make no mistake: the Libertarians you see on television and on the internet, these "Tea-Partiers," are Bourgeoisie who have hijacked anarchist terminology to justify their yearnings to restore and maintain the status quo. They are not interested in freedom, they are not motivated by any belief in human dignity, but seek instead money and power. Their credo is "I'm free--too bad about you."

Libertarians oppose laws against discrimination because these laws prevent discrimination. No fancy explanations are needed. People marched in Alabama for civil rights against a system that was formed against them, economic, legal, social and political, to make them sub-human. They marched because they had no other redress. Their only hope was make enough of a stink of fear and hatred so the federal government would step in and protect them from the local governments that created the problems in the first place.

The values and principles espoused by Libertarians were not available to people of color. They had no self-determination. The private institutions and businesses Rand Paul says we had no business regulating were sheltered and protected in their discrimination by their local governments. When civil rights protesters boycotted the lunch counters, the police responded with dogs and firehoses because the businesses were losing money.

The basic causes of prejudice and bigotry have not been addressed--often not even acknowledged to this day. Libertarianism does not address those causes of fear and hatred; instead offers only an alternative based on an ideal form of Individualism. This was of no help whatsoever to King, Sutherland and the other organizers of the civil rights marches of Birmingham.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Creationism <> Evolution

I chose to reply to this letter here, as I'm tired of having to register at every website just to comment.

The full text of the letter is here. The passage in question is:
Why can't science be a way of figuring out "how God does it" instead of man thinking he is so smart? God once answered a man who questioned Him, saying (Job 38-41), "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me..."
First of all, we must address the profound ignorance embodied in this letter, the simple (and perhaps willful) failure to understand the difference between Science and Religion. Here are the definitions from the Merriam-Webster website:

  • SCIENCE
  • 3 a : knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method b : such knowledge or such a system of knowledge concerned with the physical world and its phenomena.


  • RELIGION
  • 1 b (1) : the service and worship of God or the supernatural (2) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance.

Science expands our knowledge through the study of natural forces.

Religion provides comfort and personal insight through the worship of a diety considered the source of all things supernatural.

  • SUPERNATURAL
  • 1 : of or relating to an order of existence beyond the visible observable universe; especially : of or relating to God or a god, demigod, spirit, or devil
  • 2 a : departing from what is usual or normal especially so as to appear to transcend the laws of nature b : attributed to an invisible agent (as a ghost or spirit).

The essence of the supernatural is it can't be explained by anything we know or experience. If it were natural, we could explain it readily through observation and experimentation.

In the supernatural there is nothing we can observe, measure or replicate. The supernatural has not and will not ever contribute to human knowledge.

Science was never intended to explain the creation mythology of any religion. Science is neither superior nor inferior to any system of religious belief; the two are not related in any way.

There are many who prefer to apply a religious gloss to the results of science and comfort themselves with this. But such a varnish never really explains anything significant.

  • IGNORANT
  • 1 a : destitute of knowledge or education ; also : lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified b : resulting from or showing lack of knowledge or intelligence.

Ignorance means we don't know. "Dividing the light from the darkness" explains without really explaining anything. Since the forces and processes involved are divine, they are supernatural, so there is nothing to observe, measure, record or replicate. The biblical account of creation remains simply words on pages with no examples anywhere we can point to and say, "This is how it was done." The evidence for creationism does not exist: there is nothing to explain. Even after centuries of theological study, the answer is still, we don't know.

And we need explanations badly. Our studies of purely natural processes are revealing powers and forces that make any god look like a wet firecracker. Any creation mythos pales to insignificance to such processes as compressed forces suddenly expanding to the size of the universe in about a tenth of a second (the "Big Bang").

The study of Creationism squanders time, energy and resources better applied elsewhere to solve the many problems we face as living organisms, a species and as individuals.