American Fundementalist Christians

America Christian fundamentalism has hijacked the right , something I call  “cafeteria style Christianity” chooses which parts of Jesus’s’ teachings it chooses to honor and which not.

Preference is always given to the “I am” passages such as those in the Gospel of John in which Jesus says, “ I am the door; the bread of life; the way, the truth, and the life; the light of the world; the living water,” and so on, supposedly claiming to be God and commanding his listeners to accept him as the only way to live forever with God in heaven and escape eternity in hell.

Little attention is given to the Sermon on the Mount and the many passages where Jesus condemns the wealthy and the religious leaders of his time for their callous, hypocritical, mean-spirited absence of compassion. In fact, theologians who pay much attention to Jesus’ teachings on compassion are viewed as bleeding hearts, unorthodox, and not really Christian. For this reason, Pat Robertson stated on his 700 Club Program, January 14, 1991: “You say you’re supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don’ have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist.” Let us not overlook the obvious: Dominionism is about dominion—over women, children, the poor, people of color, alternative sexual orientations, and the earth. It fits so nicely with a Strausian Neocon fascist tyranny. Christian fundamentalism is fundamentally Un-American. Dominonists clearly desire a revised United States Constitution that will institute a fundamentalist Christian theocracy. The Domionist agenda would shred the Constitution and end the democratic republic the  Deist founding fathers.

Replacing this republic would be the Dominionist theocracy which pronounces itself above the rule of law and claims to be directed by the “higher law” of the Bible. In that society, abortion would be illegal, even in cases of rape or incest; capital punishment would be mandatory in every state, and could even be extended to anyone with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual; the nation’s entire infrastructure and economy would be privatized; public schools would be turned into essentially Dominionist parochial schools, and no social services would exist except those of faith-based charities. The fastest-growing industry in the nation, the prison system, would undoubtedly find itself at the top of the financial markets as hordes of “unbelievers” were incarcerated. However, given the multitudes of fundamentalist Christian organizations now proselytizing in the nation’s prisons, the heathen masses would be given “one more chance” to be born again, hence sending them to prison would be doing God’s work and society a favor

The “rapture” based Christian cults of modern America have nothing to do with Christianity or Jesus. The are simply a fundamentalist cult that frighten  Christians  globally. They have nothing to do with the founding of America and represent the greatest threat to the republic in US history.

Big government Conservatism under Bush is an unholy alliance between the Strausian Neocons and the Rapture based Christian Right.  They propose a secular theocracy that would change the very nature of the republic that the founding fathers initially established, a marriage between church and state that threatens the very basis of democracy and the freedom of people everywhere.  

Stiletto Workout ? Now I have seen everything.

While you'll find most of these unusual classes at gyms in large cities, not all these new workouts have the same appeal everywhere. Whipped, for example, is a class taught by a strutting, leather-clad dominatrix brandishing a riding crop. It took off in New York but fizzled in mellower Los Angeles.

Stiletto heels are used in the new Stiletto Strength class. "It's a class all dedicated to the lower body and having great legs," explained Hogan. "It's a lot of sculpting and lower body workout and we supply the stilettos."

And if your local gym doesn't offer these classes yet, don't fret it might soon."We start a lot of things here [at Crunch] and eventually someone gives us the sincerest form of flattery," Hogan said of imitators. "Cardio striptease just celebrated its five-year anniversary, and it's all over the country now."

Major Earthquake Hit

Major Earthquake Hits Off Indonesian Coast
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A magnitude-7.7 undersea earthquake rocked eastern Indonesia early Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There was no danger of a tsunami.The earthquake occurred about 120 miles south of Moluccas, the USGS said. It occurred at a depth of 212 miles.The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said no destructive tsunami threat existed.That region of our world has experienced several earthquakes and disasters within a year or so. On Jan 2nd I reported also on earthquakes and mudslides there since then if not mistaken more have occurred.Tsunameter info link

Internet dating doh

Internet dating doh!

I once swapped sonnets via email with a gorgeous looking PHD vet (sorry I love smart girls), we decided to meet at the pub (bar ) and so I wandered in and saw the girl . I was really excited and that is a hard thing to manage for a hard bitten cynic likes me. (not really)

Anyway she was at least 20 kgs heavier than her photo and strangely different in personality. I love a drink but it’s rare for me to get to wasted an being polite and still hoping I would make a nice friend out he encounter. When I sit down it becomes obvious she’s been drinking for a few hours and there is that strange acrid stale smell of alcohol.

Ever polite I figure it aint looking good I decide to have one or two politely depart. So I announce my impending departure and excuse myself to the bathroom. Well when I got back there was a fresh glass of wine sitting on the table that she’s insisting I should drink.

So I figure why not and start drinking my 3rd, to be tricked again when she buys yet another while I am on the phone.

So I figure I gotta get out of here and she decides shes going to walk me to my car and  figuring it can be to bad we wander off toward my wheels.

As we leave the bar the worlds mangiest dog runs straight across in traffic. She heads off in hot pursuit screaming across the traffic that I should help her. I am not sure why I didn’t run then but you kind of think well the dog is going to get hurt so I run after the dog as well. Now I would normally never participate in such things but we finally corner the dog and da vet tells me to grab it by the collar while she ties a rope to it.

Well its not hard to guess what happens next the dog was obviously descended from Cujo and it bit my hand. Now we had all the elements, an amorous size 18 drunken Danish vet ,  who seeing the dog attack me completely forgets about the dog and wants to tend my wounds.

I make an excuse about an appointment and decide that I need to go and start walking briskly to my car. She follows insisting that she wants to look after me. Now I am ashamed to say but as we walked more briskly and more briskly and more briskly I start calculating how much distance I can put between me and her if I start running, slowly at first then as we gather some pace I panic and start running as fast as I can.

But so does she? And starts talking about how much she likes me as we sprint through the backstreets of Newtown. Now we have all had those pleading conversations before but I had previously experienced them in High School and definitely not at a sprint.

“I thought we really got on and your not giving me a chance”

“Your never going to find a woman if you don’t get to know her first”

“I really like you I want to get to know you better”

To add to this the dog has joined the chase but Ive managed to put 20 meters between me and her (and the dog)

I jump in the car and lock the doors.

She then sits on my bonnet and trys to talk to me through the windscreen.

At that point I was kind of stuck, do I drive off with her on the bonnet and risk her an injury or do I stay put. Well I stayed put for 10-15 minutes and tried talking some sense to her through the windscreen but eventually concluded that if I gently tried to drive away she might hop off.

She did get off when she turned angry and started threatening damage to the car but I managed to get away. She turned up at work the next day with a bunch of flowers .

It was good insight I guess into what girls go through when they are being stalked, 20 phone calls , texts and emails later she eventually disappeared.

The next week I went out with an animal liberationist and that went wonderfully until I ordered an egg sandwich.

Iraq , Sun Tzu and the collapse of US Hegemony

Iraq , Sun Tzu and the collapse of US Hegemony

Throughout the whole history of warfare the successful generals spawned by brutal memes of the time held an advantage. Napoleon , Alexander ,or even Hitler could for whatever reason mobilize the will of the people and universally manage their beliefs.

The Neocon Staussian logic falters on this one assumption. They believe that war is inevitable and superior military strength should be utilized. They forget that superior military strength can only be utilized if the will of the country can be manifested to crush the enemy. Think through how any of the above mentioned leaders would approach Iraq and the words genocide and slavery come to mind.

The concept of “the will to wage war” is a an important dynamic because it’s a one that is ill-considered in the Necon philosophy. When the conservatives analyze their military superiority they ponder smart missiles and stealth bombers.and assume that these advantages translate to utopian military outcomes.

If we could bring Sun Tzu in as an independent consultant on the middle east his review would points

“There are three ways by which the army is put into difficulty by the ruler:

He does not know that [his army] should not advance but instructs them to advance, or does not know [his army] should not withdraw and orders a retreat. This is termed ‘entangling the army.’

He does not understand [his army’s] military affairs but [directs them] in the same way as his [civil] administration. Then the officers will become confused.

He does not understand [his army’s] tactical balance of power (ch’űan) but undertakes responsibility for command. Then the officers will be doubtful. (Powell, Zinni etc etc)

. “When employing [the army] in battle, a victory that is long in coming will blunt their weapons and dampen their ardor. If you attack cities, [the army’s] strength will be exhausted. If you expose the army to a prolonged campaign, the state’s resources will be inadequate. [Think of the growing deficit and war spending, and then of the rebuilding effort.]

“One who excels in employing the military does not conscript the people twice or transport provisions a third time.” And, “The state is impoverished by the army when it transports provisions far off. When provisions are transported far off, the hundred surnames [taxpayers] are impoverished.”

“Thus what [motivates men] to slay the enemy is anger; what [stimulates them] to seize profits from the enemy is material goods. Thus in chariot encounters, when ten or more chariots are captured, reward the first to get one. Change their flags and pennants to ours; intermix and employ them with our own chariots.”

“Treat the captured soldiers well in order to nurture them [for our use]. This is referred to as ‘conquering the enemy and growing stronger.’”

"There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare."

The number of US soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen deployed around the world is imposing.
Fully one-third of the 1.4 million men and women in the armed forces are posted outside the country, either ashore or afloat, in 136 countries.

Their operations range from several sergeants on training missions in Latin America or Africa to 169,000 troops in Iraq and 19,000 in Afghanistan. Some are in Central Asia, which is literally halfway around the world. Moreover, this military empire dates back six decades to the end of World War II.

Today, 69,000 troops are in Germany, 35,000 in Japan, 12,000 in Italy and 11,000 in Britain. In South Korea are 33,000 troops still there 53 years after the Korean War.

The cost in blood has been intense. In South Korea, Vietnam and the smaller skirmishes such as that in Panama since 1945, more than 82,000 US warriors have suffered battle death. More than three times that number have been wounded. The number killed in Iraq has passed 2,050 and continues to climb.

Added to this is the cost in treasure. US taxpayers have been asked for US$450 billion for next year's defense budget, which is more than the combined military spending of China, Japan, France and 10 other nations, according to the CIA.

Bin Laden's proposes that he will provoke the US into bankruptcy . Everyone of his communications reflects the tactic of provoking the US to spend money. He invested 100k in 9/11 and provoked a $2 trillion dollar response

Back to Sun Tzu

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."

I would say the US falls into a category worse than the "know neither" category - the "I don't want to know either" category. We are blind to what is going on over there, and to our own disastrous energy trajectory.

Bin Laden tells us exactly what he will do, and what he wants us to do in response - then we do it and claim victory. We think we are winning the war against Al Qaeda when his greatest victory (9-11) was to drag us into the middle east (like the Soviets in Afghanistan, and us before in Vietnam). His dream is a United States that gets more dependent on Arabian oil every day, and bankrupts its government with military spending that only inflames his base. The day of reckoning he wants wasn't 9/11, it will be the collapse of the United States economy and retreat from the middle east.