* My Sweet Lord! Death Threats & Less ...

Six-Foot Chocolate Jesus Most Anticipated Easter Work At Gallery

The Post Chronical
March 28, 2007

NEW YORK -- "World renowned artist Cosimo Cavallaro unveils his latest and most striking installation at the Lab Gallery (at the Roger Smith Hotel, 47th and Lexington avenue) in the early morning hours of April 1st."

The Catholic League is among those who are highly offended by the Easter treat.

"Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented as follows:

March 29, 2007 -- “The cowards at the Roger Smith Hotel, who were brazen enough to tease their trash to selected media sources over the past few days, have shut down and are refusing to talk to the press. But the artist has decided to go his own way. He is now inviting everyone to eat his chocolate Jesus.

“The Roger Smith Hotel is morally bankrupt. It is the goal of the Catholic League to make it financially bankrupt as well. Being mailed out today are hundreds of letters, complete with the news release I wrote a few hours ago, calling for a boycott of the hotel. These organizations represent millions of Americans across religious lines, as well as those who belong to non-sectarian groups. All of them can be counted on to never hold a conference at the hotel. And more—they will let all of their allies know about this incident.

“The Roger Smith Hotel will rue the day it sought to declare war on Christian sensibilities.”

Well, now, today the exhibit has been shut down before it opened due to the outrage which included even death threats from offendees. [sigh]

* The Democratic Party has Built a PartyBuilder ~ One-Stop Shopping for a President

PartyBuilder includes...

• A user dashboard that pulls data from all tools into one, easy-to-manage interface.
• A social networking tool that allows for people to connect with one another.
• A search tool, allowing users to find each other or to find established groups based on name or zip code.
• A groups tool, allowing users to join together for an issue, cause, or candidate. Users then share a common blog, events management system, and listserv.
• An events tool that allows users to create real-world events of any kind.
• A personal fundraising system, that allows users to take control of the financial future of the party.
• A petitions section, allowing users to add their voice to a host of important issue statements.
• A letters tool, that easily connects users with the editors of their local papers. Talking points are conveniently provided for a range of issues.
• A blog for every user, complete with full management control and commenting functionality. The blogs have an integrated, shared tagging system for system-wide categorization.

* Click to join the fun ...

* John Lennon ~ Imagined no Religion but "God is Something in People"

John Lennon
October 8, 1940 – December 8, 1980
Imagine

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
"Imagine" was John Lennon's second major release apart from the Beatles. Released on Sept. 9, 1971 (US) and Oct. 8, 1971 (UK), it has remained John's most commercially successful album. It was recorded primarily in John's home studio which turned out to be the last time he would ever record in England.

In a 1966 Interview, Lennon talked about his faithlessness in Christianity:

'Christianity will go,' he said. 'It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first-rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.'

"I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong."

Of course, USA Bible-belters responded by publically burning Beatles albums and memorabilia. Yet Lennon had said, "God is something in all of us." Imagine that ...

The UK Telegraph
Official Website

* The Jesus Machine ~ by Dan Gilgoff

Dan Gilgoff, a senior editor at US News & World Report, has a new book out entitled The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America Are Winning the Culture War.

THE BOOK

"More than two-dozen amendments to state constitutions banning gay marriage. The reelection of George W. Bush by winning nearly 80 percent of the white evangelical vote. The Terri Schiavo congressional intervention. The Christian Right has achieved more in the last few years than at any time in its history. Yet the story of the man and the organization that have orchestrated those successes—James Dobson and his Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family—has gone almost entirely untold.

"Until now.

"In The Jesus Machine, U.S. News & World Report Senior Editor Dan Gilgoff provides the first inside look at Dobson’s vast national network, the most powerful web of organizations the Christian Right has ever known." Read more ...

Dan Gilgoff at The Huffington Post

* Dubya's Tower of Babel ~ Not at My University ~ Not Mincing Words

January 2007, Protect SMU Petition

"We the undersigned express our objection to the prospect of the George W. Bush library, museum, and think tank being established at Southern Methodist University. As United Methodists, we believe that the linking of his presidency with a university bearing the Methodist name is utterly inappropriate. We urge the Board of Trustees of Southern Methodist University and the South Central Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church to reject this project."

Why?

Bishop's Speak Out Against Bush's Library

CrossLeft
by Stephen Rockwell
February 1, 2007

“The placement of the George W. Bush Library and the establishment of an Institute to promote the policies of this president at Southern Methodist University would be a tragedy.” said Bishop William Boyd Grove. “The policies of the Bush administration are in direct conflict with the Social Principles of the United Methodist Church on issues of war and peace, civil liberties and human rights, care for the environment and health care. SMU is a university of the church, and is home to one of our outstanding theological seminaries. Its Methodist identity and its moral authority would be seriously compromised were it to be identified with the policies of George W. Bush in this way”.Read more ...

But now, and for now, the library has been approved:

Methodist council approves land lease for Bush library

The SMU Daily Campus
by Mark Norris, Editor In Chief

March 20, 2007

"While students hit the slopes or laid out on the beach during Spring Break, SMU moved one step closer to finalizing a deal for the George W. Bush Library complex.

"The Mission Council of the United Methodist Church's South Central Jurisdiction approved the lease of land on campus in a 10-4 vote. There was one abstention." More ...

Keep up-to-date on the commotion at The Bush Library Blog

COMMENTARY ~ After 5 years, a broken military, broken Constitution, broken laws and broken troops ...

McClatchy Newspapers
by Joseph L. Galloway

March 21, 2007

"No doubt the contractors who are bloated like ticks on the billions they've sucked out of the public trough will write the checks to build George W. Bush a really fine presidential library on the campus of Southern Methodist University.

"All of it will be a lie, just like the lies his administration told to beat the war drums five years ago.

"How will the curators portray the broken military, the broken Constitution, the broken laws, the forever broken troops who came home missing limbs or eyes or pieces of their brains, the broken promises to cherish and care for the families of those who were killed and those very wounded veterans?

"How will they portray the corruption, both real and spiritual, that this man and his accomplices have visited upon a nation and a people who once could be proud of their place in this world?

"How and why did so many Americans, including so many in Congress and in the media, sit idly by while so much that was precious to us was bent and twisted and broken by men who had the power and the money to do the right things but chose to do the wrong things?" Full article ...

flickr image

* Confining Religion to Private Thought, What a Great Idea! ~ England's New Morality

British House of Lords Votes on Equality Act (Sexual Orientation Regulations) 2007, Raises Serious Implications for Christian Believers

ASSIST News Service
by Michael Ireland,
Chief Correspondent

March 23, 2007

LONDON, ENGLAND (ANS) -- The vote by 168 to 122 in the British House of Lord's on March 21 in favor of the Government's Equality Act (Sexual Orientation Regulations) 2007 marks the imposition of a new morality, according to the website Christian Concern for our Nation (CCFON), which is a project of the Lawyers Christian Fellowship in the United Kingdom.

An e-mail media release says: "It is a clear sign that despite saying they were going to consult and listen the Government has failed to respect the consciences of citizens whose values are formed and shaped by their deeply held religious beliefs, be they Christian, Muslim or Jewish. This could have been easily resolved by a simple conscience clause."

The e-mail states: "In a week where the whole country celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery, brought about, by and large, through the determined efforts of William Wilberforce, we would do well to remember his driving force and motivation stemmed from his Christian conviction. History will record that today's vote marked the increased secularization of Britain confining faith to private thought, rather than public manifestation in works of service for the whole community."

It adds: "The consequences and implications of the SORs will unfold month by month. The result of the vote will mean that rather than balancing rights, the right to live a homosexual lifestyle will trump the right to live a Christian lifestyle." Read more ...

Christian Concern for our Nation (CCFON) has set up a petition page to Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II against "the imposition of a new morality" in England. It is written there:

"Are you concerned for our nation? Many laws impacting on Christians’ day-to-day lives go against biblical values. And more are being passed every year by the Government. For example, there are currently discussions in Parliament about laws relating to:

* Reducing freedom to preach the gospel
* Legalising euthanasia
* Making abortions more easily available

"Christian Concern for our Nation (CCFON) is an activity of the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship Public Policy Unit. It is a service for non-lawyers who want to be equipped to understand, act and respond to the increasing number of legal issues impacting the Gospel and Biblical justice at the heart of our society. CCFON consists of a website and e-mail update service supported by an active team of lawyers.

"More and more it seems Christians are rejecting the apathy which has so often kept the Church silent. We realise both the need and the power of uniting together and making our voices heard. The call to Christians is to stand up for values God expresses in the Bible. If we don’t, no-one else will."

Maybe it's not just England but all of Europe that's losing its faith, fears Pope Benedict XVI.

* Artist's Work Destroyed by Russian Orthodox Churchgoers

Russian-born artist, Alexander Kosolapov, has lived and worked in New York City since 1975 where he has been influenced by Andy Warhol's work. These three pieces are among some of Kosolapov's work that indignant Russian Orthodox churchgoers either damaged, destroyed, or removed from exhibits.



Russian lawsuit testing limits of free expression

by Erika Niedowski,
Sun Foreign Reporter

March 23, 2007

MOSCOW: "Oleg Kassin objected to them all: the portrait of a robed Jesus Christ, his face replaced by a Mickey Mouse head, among his disciples; an icon of a halo-adorned Virgin Mary done in dots made to look like caviar; the photo of a crouched woman in a brassiere, thong and high-heeled boots with her rear to the camera [at the Andrei Sakharov Museum].

"So he and the Russian Orthodox church group to which he belongs went to court this week, claiming not just questionable artistic taste, but an outright crime.

"For the second time in recent years, an exhibit at the Andrei Sakharov Museum and Public Center has become the object of a legal fight here and a touchstone for debate on the right to - and limits of - free expression in Russia, which, as it turns out, often comes at a cost."
...

"The problem is, they don't want to discuss it," he [the museum's curator, Yerofeyev] said of the Tretyakov's leadership. "They simply say it's forbidden. Maybe they are right; some things should be forbidden. But there should be arguments, professional ones."

The Russian Orthodox church group charges the museum with inciting religious and ethnic hatred. The first time this happened was in March 2005:

Beware of Religion: a Rebirth of Militant Atheism in Moscow

Russian Orthodox Church
by Dmitry Ageev
March 23, 2005

"The exhibition «Beware of religion!» opened in the exhibition hall of the Andrei Sakharov museum in Moscow on January 14, 2003, where a group of artists presented works that were meant to «draw attention to the hypocritical role of religion in the contemporary world». Among these works were: an imitation of a large icon of Christ with a road sign instead of a face; an imitation of an icon of Christ with openings for the face and hands, through which visitors were invited to place their corresponding body parts and be photographed; a billboard with a Coca-Cola logo, depiction of Christ and the inscription «This is My Blood»; a cross covered with garlands of sausages; ... " Read more

While some people may have found the "Caution! Religion" exhibition offensive, Amnesty International does not believe that any of the exhibits portrayed on the Andrei Sakharov Museum and Public Centre's website amounted to an incitement to violence. Moreover, the use in this case of Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code – which is in the section of the criminal code listing crimes against the state – is wholly disproportionate.

Dr. Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (Russian: Андре́й Дми́триевич Са́харов) (May 21, 1921 – December 14, 1989) was an eminent Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and reforms in the Soviet Union and was the first Russian to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2005 the Russian Orthodox church wrote, "The exhibition’s organizers who shamed the name of A. Sakharov, himself the grandson of an Orthodox priest, should be severely punished."

The real shame is that we are not surprised at the destruction of an artist's work by Christians.

As to how Dr. Sakharov might respond, "... religion did not play an important role in his life, though he did believe that a non-scientific "guiding principle" governed the universe and human life."* As a champion for human rights and civil liberties I think that Dr. Sakharov would agree with Amnesty International.

* Drell, Sidney D., and Sergei P. Kapitsa (eds.), Sakharov Remembered, pp. 3, 92. New York: Springer, 1991.

* Dump Religion in Favor of People ~ Women's Rights, not Religion!

I wish someone would have told me that, just because I'm a girl, I don't have to get married. ~ Marlo Thomas

One of the things about equality is not just that you be treated equally to a man, but that you treat yourself equally to the way you treat a man. ~ Marlo Thomas

Amnesty International

German Judge Cites Koran, Stirring Up Cultural Storm

New York Times
by Mark Lander FRANKFURT, March 22 — "A German judge has stirred a storm of protest by citing the Koran in turning down a German Muslim woman’s request for a speedy divorce on the ground that her husband beat her.

"In a ruling that underlines the tension between Muslim customs and European laws, the judge, Christa Datz-Winter, noted that the couple came from a Moroccan cultural milieu, in which it is common for husbands to beat their wives. The Koran, she wrote in her decision, sanctions such physical abuse.

"News of the ruling brought swift and sharp condemnation from politicians, legal experts and Muslim leaders in Germany, many of whom said they were confounded that a German judge would put seventh-century Islamic religious teaching ahead of German law in deciding a case of domestic violence.

"The court in Frankfurt abruptly removed Judge Datz-Winter from the case on Wednesday, saying it could not justify her reasoning. The woman’s lawyer, Barbara Becker-Rojczyk, said she decided to publicize the ruling, which was issued in January, after the court refused her request for a new judge.

“It was terrible for my client,” Ms. Becker-Rojczyk said. “This man beat her seriously from the beginning of their marriage. After they separated, he called her and threatened to kill her...” Full Article

* The Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University Hosts "The New Humanism" Conference

Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA will host “The New Humanism” conference in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University, April 20-22.

The New Humanism: Multi-Cultural and Multi-National

"Our conference is designed to demonstrate that Humanism is a multi-cultural and multi-national world movement that best represents the otherwise unrepresented, under-appreciated 1.1 billion non-religious people on Earth."

More about Harvard's Conference

What?

gapingvoid.com

* Iraq War, 4th Anniversary Today ~ Nothing to Celebrate ~ Depressing Day

March 19, 2003 ~ Fires rage in Baghdad as U.S.-led
coalition forces attack the city.

The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder. We will meet that threat now, with our Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines, so that we do not have to meet it later with armies of fire fighters and police and doctors on the streets of our cities.

~ President Bush addressing the nation soon after the bombing of Baghdad began on March 19, 2003.

time.com A Brief History of the War ~ Month By Month, Quote By Quote, 2003 - 2007

* An Acceptable God ~ Hands-off & Do-it-yourself

ears ago I was writing a paper for my religious studies class. At the time I was a questioning Christian. As I struggled for a thesis for my paper, sitting at home next to shelves of my books, I glanced up and zeroed in on two of them, by chance. One was Hans Kung's, Does God Exist? and right beside it was a home improvement manual titled, Fix-it-Yourself. I prefaced my paper with this experience and throughout the rest of it referred to God as "it." Even though my professor was a Christian I received an A for the paper.

Dr. Anthony Kelly responds to Paul Davies' The Goldilocks Enigma: Why is the Universe Just Right for Life. In Dr. Kelly's article, articulated is a God that I had already built in my paper. It is validating to find someone else who shares a vision of God that I've continued to ponder over the years as the only kind of God, if it exists, that would be acceptable to me as it is not interventive and is completely divorced from religion.

Resolving the Goldilocks Enigma - An Evidence Based Approach

by Anthony Kelly (Faculty of Education, Humanities, Law and Theology, Flinders University) Philica.com

Abstract: "The Goldilocks question [Paul Davies asks: "Why is the Universe Just Right for Life?"] is answerable but neither of the two main answers considered by Paul Davies, the existence of an interventionist “hands-on” God or the existence of a Multiverse, is convincing. The evidence provided by Cosmology and by the process of Emergent Evolution shows the Universe to be a purposeful process involving the self-organisation of Matter and Life and the self-creation of Humanity. The Universe exists for a purpose. The world is humanity’s 'do-it-yourself' kit."

Dr. Anthony Kelly lives in South Australia and holds a BA in Philosophy, Sociology and Theology from Flinders University, did Honours in Philosophy in 1988 and Postgraduate work in Philosophy 1989-95 and in Theology 1996-1998. He was admitted to Doctor of Philosophy in Theology in 1998. He has been a Board Member of the Inter-Church Trade and Industry Mission for years 1973-1977, and its Chairman in 1977-78. Between 1970 and 1982 Dr Kelly was Secretary, then Vice President, and finally President of the SA Industrial Relations Society, and was a member of the Flinders University Council 1981-84.

"I argue that Creation is a process involving a series of Emergent stages. Each new Emergent stage sublates the previous stage in that it incorporates the previous stage but transcends it. The present Human Moral-cultural stage provides a platform for the final Emergent stage. Previous Emergent stages have developed by self-organisation. The final Emergent stage can only develop by human self-creation. Jesus is a proleptic exemplar of the final Emergent stage."

Dr. Kelly's thesis and articles can be read at his website.

Dissertation, The Process of the Cosmos: Philosophical Theology and Cosmology

Lonergan, Metaphysics, and Mythology, pp. 45-58, The Examined Life Journal

* Entering 5th Year of Iraq War ~ Proud of Our Soldiers; Many Ashamed of President.

Thousands of War Protesters March to Pentagon
Demonstrators Heckled by Veterans, War Supporters

by Michael Alison Chandler, Brigid Schulte and Steve Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, March 17, 2007

The Washington Post: "Thousands of protesters gathered at the Lincoln Memorial today and marched to the Pentagon to mark Monday's anniversary of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but they were heckled along the route by smaller groups of veterans and war supporters..."
Thousands Protest As War Enters 5th Year

by The Associated Press
March 17, 2007

New York Times: "Speakers at the Pentagon rally criticized the Bush administration at every turn but blamed congressional Democrats, too, for refusing to cut off money for the war."

And where is President Bush today? Safely tucked away at the Presidential Retreat at Camp David, Maryland.

PBS Reports: "The strikes began at about 5:35 a.m. local time Wednesday, March 19, 2003 (9:25 p.m. Eastern time), some 90 minutes after President Bush's deadline for Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave Iraq expired."

Iraqi Civilian Deaths =>

CNN Reports: , Wednesday, March 19, 2003 "If [the Iraqi] people have more money they have been trying to leave the country. Many of the rich try to send families to Syria to sit out the war.

"However, the vast majority of Baghdad's five million have people remained in the city."

"Shock and Awe", March 21,3003
"Shock and Awe", March 22, 2003

Cross-reference METAXY ~ US and Iraqi War Casualties

* President James Madison ~ Primary Author of Our Secular U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights

James Madison (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836)

The Social Utility of Religion: Risks vs. Rewards

“During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution. . . .

Torrents of blood have been spilt in the old world, by vain attempts of the secular arm, to extinguish Religious discord, by proscribing all difference in Religious opinion.”
~ James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance, 1785

"On this date in 1751, James Madison was born in Virginia. The Deist, who became primary author of the secular U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, and fourth President of the United States, originally contemplated the ministry as a career. After graduating from Princeton, Madison was appointed a delegate to the Virginia state convention. There he was responsible for the adoption of a freedom of conscience clause in the state constitution. "Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect," Madison wrote William Bradford (April 1, 1771)."

Freedom From Religion Foundation

"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect."
~ James Madison in his letter to William Bradford (April 1, 1771).

See Amendment I (Religion), James Madison, Detached Memoranda

The government of the United States of America is secular, in principle, but not in fact. George W. Bush, its current president, would have it be a Christian nation which has not fared well for the US, Iraq, or the world because of his warped ideology.

* Free E-book from the Biblical Archaeology Society ~ The Burial of Jesus

Free e-book, The Burial of Jesus, on the burial customs in ancient Jerusalem, what Jesus’ tomb would have looked like and what we know of Jesus’ family."

The 65-page book includes photos and articles by such prominent archaeologists as Amos Kloner, Richard Bauckman, Jodi Magness, Dan Bahat, Gabriel Barkay, and Jerome Murphy-O'Connor.

* High-ranking Wikipedia Member Passed Himself Off as Having a Ph.D. in Religion

Wikipedia to writers: Prove your expertise

March 8, 2007

(AP) -- "Following revelations that a high-ranking member of Wikipedia's bureaucracy used his cloak of anonymity to lie about being a professor of religion, the free Internet encyclopedia plans to ask contributors who claim such credentials to identify themselves."
...

"In addition to contributing thousands of articles to the sprawling Web encyclopedia, Jordan [the offender] had recently been promoted to arbitrator, a position for trusted members of the community. Arbitrators can overrule an edit made by another volunteer or block people who abuse the site."

It turns out that the man is a 24-year old college dropout!

What makes this article stand out for me is the first half of the moral to the story, a wise saying: "It's always inappropriate to try to win an argument by flashing your credentials," Wales said, "and even more so if those credentials are inaccurate."

* Newsletter from Media Matters ~ If it's Sunday, It's Still Conservative

March 12, 2007

Dear Friend,

"I am writing to share with you a new report by Media Matters for America -- If It's Sunday, It's Still Conservative: How the Right Continues to Dominate the Sunday Talk Shows -- which presents a comprehensive analysis of the guest lineups on the Sunday-morning talk shows in recent years."
...

"The American people deserve an equitable and balanced debate on Sunday morning. To provide anything less is a violation of the public's trust. These programs need to address this problem, or risk diminishing their respected position in America's political landscape.

"In the months ahead, will the networks address the imbalance in their guest lineups? Or will they continue with business as usual?

"I hope you will join me in urging the networks to address our findings and consider whether the Sunday shows serve the public interest by continuing to give conservatives the edge in setting the terms of the national debate."

» View the Report & Take Action!

Sincerely,





David Brock,
President & CEO
Media Matters for America

* President Bush Said to Leave Bad Energy ~ Ritual Cleansing Needed in Guatemala

Mayas to cleanse site after Bush

BBC News
March 12, 2007

Maya leaders have said they will perform a ceremony after US President George W Bush visits an ancient site during his trip to Guatemala.

Mr Bush is due at the Mayan ruins of Iximche, some 80kms west of the capital, Guatemala City, on Monday.

His arrival brings him to the fourth nation in a five-state tour of the Latin American region.

But Maya leaders said they will have to perform a special cleansing ceremony to clear bad energy left by his visit.

"No, Mr Bush, you cannot trample and degrade the memory of our ancestors," indigenous leader Rodolfo Pocop said, adding, "This is not your ranch in Texas."

Mr Bush is due to visit farm co-operatives and education centres in the Chimaltenango district.

Mr Bush is expected to be welcomed with native dances and to get a guided tour of the ruins of what was the capital of the Kaqchikel Maya people before the 1524 Spanish conquest. But after he leaves, Maya protesters said they would hold a ceremony to restore peace and harmony to the area.

"We reject this portrayal of our people as a tourist attraction," Morales Toj said.

"We will burn incense, place flowers and water in the area where Mr Bush has walked to clean out the bad energy," he said.

Maya Incense Ritual

flickr

Humankind is never the victim of God;
God is always the victim of humankind.

~ René Girard, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning,
Orbis Books, 1999, page 191

* Understandably Disillusioned ~ Paul Krassner

I had become an atheist at the age of thirteen, when atomic bombs were dropped on Japan.
~ Paul Krassner, Editor/Comedian

More at Wikipedia

* Why Did Lewis Scooter Libby Throw it all Away? Did He Cover Up for Cheney? Is Cheney Next?

For Cheney, Political Toll May Follow Libby Verdict

by SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
March 7, 2007

WASHINGTON, March 6 — "In legal terms, the jury has spoken in the Libby case. In political terms, Dick Cheney is still awaiting a judgment..."

"For weeks, Washington watched, mesmerized, as the trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr. cast Vice President Cheney, his former boss, in the role of puppeteer, pulling the strings in a covert public relations campaign to defend the Bush administration’s case for war in Iraq and discredit a critic.

“'There is a cloud over the vice president,' the prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, told the jury in summing up the case last month..." more ...

NY times Quote of the Day

"The truth is what drives our judicial system. If people don’t come forward and tell the truth, we have no hope of making the judicial system work."

PATRICK J. FITZGERALD, the prosecutor in the Libby case.

To be continued when more is known.

* Breaking News ~ Some Dots Connected Today

"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

~ George W. Bush, State of the Union, January 28, 2003 speech

Libby found guilty in CIA leak case

March 6, 2007 - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney was found guilty on Tuesday of lying and obstructing a probe related to the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war and could face years in prison ...

Iraq War Began March 17, 2003
Casualties of the War to Date

Someone's fantasies.

* The Quotable Bertrand Russell

(18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

~ Bertrand Russell, Why I am Not a Christian, 1927

* March on the Pentagon ~ March 17, 2007

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
(Two Minute Video)

"On March 17, to mark the 5th year of this immoral and unjust war and occupation of Iraq, JOIN FORCES and march on The Pentagon. Tell the Bush Regime to End the War NOW! No attack on Iran!"

* Skepticism a Virtue ~ Porgy and Bess Revisited

It Ain't Necessarily So
It ain't necessarily so, (repeat)
De t'ings dat yo' li'ble
To read in de Bible,
It ain't necessarily so.

Li'l David was small, but oh my! (rpt)
He fought big Goliath
Who lay down an' dieth!
Li'l David was small, but oh my!

Oh, Jonah, he lived in de whale, (rpt)
Fo' he made his home in
Dat fish's abdomen.
Oh, Jonah, he lived in de whale.

Li'l Moses was found in a stream, (rpt)
He floated on water
Till Ole Pharaoh's daughter
She fished him, she says, from that stream.

It ain't necessarily so, (rpt)
Dey tell all you chillun
De debble's a villun,
But 'tain't necessarily so.

To get into Hebben don' snap for a sebben!
Live clean! Don' have no fault.
Oh, I takes dat gospel
Whenever it's poss'ble,
But wid a grain of salt.

Methus'lah lived nine hundred years,
But who calls dat livin'
When no gal'll give in
To no man what's nine hundred years?

I'm preachin' dis sermon to show,
It ain't nessa, ain't nessa,
ain't nessa, ain't nessa,
Ain't necessarily so.

Music by George Gershwin, American Composer (September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937). Lyrics by Ira Gershwin. © 1935 by Gershwin Publishing Co.

* The Antichrist is Coming. Is This It?

Pope is warned of a green Antichrist

by Richard Owen
Times Online, UK
March 2, 2007

An arch-conservative cardinal chosen by the Pope to deliver this year’s Lenten meditations to the Vatican hierarchy has caused consternation by giving warning of an Antichrist who is “a pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist”.

Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, 78, who retired as Archbishop of Bologna three years ago, quoted Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900), the Russian philosopher and mystic, as predicting that the Antichrist “will convoke an ecumenical council and seek the consensus of all the Christian confessions.” more ...

See story also at Catholic Online

flickr photo

* The Flying Spaghetti Monster Adopted by Richard Dawkins ~ Everyone's an Atheist?

This adaptation of Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam depicts the Flying Spaghetti Monster [born in 2005] in its typical guise as a clump of tangled spaghetti with two eyestalks, two meatballs, and many "noodly appendages".

Steve Paulson: Why do you call yourself an atheist? Why not an agnostic?

Richard Dawkins: Well, technically, you cannot be any more than an agnostic. But I am as agnostic about God as I am about fairies and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. You cannot actually disprove the existence of God. Therefore, to be a positive atheist is not technically possible. But you can be as atheist about God as you can be atheist about Thor or Apollo. Everybody nowadays is an atheist about Thor and Apollo. Some of us just go one god further.

Richard Dawkins, METAXY

* Robert Eisenman Weighs in on "Jesus' Family Tomb" ~ Not a Favorable Report

The Jesus Tomb: Primeval Stupidity

Professor Robert Eisenman
Huffington Post
February 27, 2007

"The latest 'discovery' of the so-called "Jesus Tomb" or "Jesus Cave" is so preposterous that it has to be laughed out of court..."

"Still, let's not take one's eye off the ball - the fact of a cave with such beautiful ossuaries is interesting in itself and should be examined for and by itself and not just sealed or stored somewhere out of sight. Hoorah, that it will now become part of the tourist itinerary. One plus from this sorry charade and display of historical ignorance anyhow! How beautiful and comely was thy daughter, O Children of Zion."

Eisenman lists his reasons for his view that the idea of the tomb containing Jesus and family is Primeval Stupidity

Eisenman's Biography

Cross-reference METAXY

The Jesus Family Tomb published in February 2007 by authors Simcha Jacobovici & Charles R. Pellegrino

* Angelina Jolie ~ Humanitarian Awards Winner, Goodwill Ambassador, Godless Goddess

March is Women's History Month

There doesn't need to be a God for me. There's something in people that's spiritual, that's godlike. I don't feel like doing things just because people say things, but I also don't really know if it's better to just not believe in anything, either. ~ Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie visits camp in Chad to assess situation for Darfur refugees

BAHAI, Chad, February 27, 2007 - UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie on Tuesday completed a two-day mission to a refugee camp in eastern Chad which enabled her to assess how the security situation has deteriorated for Sudanese refugees since her last visit to Chad three years ago ...continued

Instead of attending the Academy Awards, Angelina Jolie (also an actress) was in Africa to visit refugee camps and raise awareness about the continuing devastation in Darfur. At only 31, Jolie's humanitarian outreach resume--that began in 2001--is voluminous. Not only has she given of herself but has donated millions for various issues and needs around the world.

Also see E! Online