Saturday, July 22, 2006

Sabath


Israeli troops mass on Lebanon border CNN

While CNN did its invasion watch yesterday,
someone on staff who was Jewish, heck even Muslim,

should have reminded them it was the Sabath
and there would be no invasion until after the Sabath.
As in Saturday night. Dummies.





Also See:

Israel

Lebanon



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God Who?




A new book says that 80 percent of American teens believe in God -- but their God is a buddy who props up their self-esteem, and many don't even know who Jesus was.

Smith and his colleagues discovered that while three-quarters of their subjects professed to be Christians, they're dazed and confused when it comes to articulating their beliefs. "We go to church, and ... God is coming back again and he'll take us to heaven. And what was the other one?" was a typical attempt. One 14-year-old girl, through barely contained yawns, pointed to her Internet and cable connections as proof of God's goodness. And she wasn't the only one who saw God as a big cable guy in the sky. Most kids' faith, says Smith, takes the form of what he calls moralistic therapeutic deism -- God is an undemanding, all-fulfilling entity existing only to help us feel better about ourselves.


That sums it up perfectly. An all consumable God. Capitalisms ultimate commodity. And it gives a whole new meaning to the phrase; Thank God for the Internet.

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Friday, July 21, 2006

Wente Whines

A BCer in Toronto notes the slimy callousness of the Blogging Tories who are denouncing Lebanese Canadians who are seeking evacuation from the war zone as whiners.

In the MSM this same attitude was shown by Margret Wente token right wing housefrau columnist for the Globe and Mail.

In her column yesterday
World's best insurance policyLock (sorry its locked) she says basically immigrants to Canada who become Canadian citizens expect cradle to the grave protection by the Canadian goverment, even when abroad. Such ingrates she says to expect the Canadian liberal social democratic state to protect its citizens no matter the expense. She herself who is originally an American forcefully transplanted here by her parents. Such an ingrate.

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Journalism Safe From Bloggers

Whew just the thought that Blogs might replace the MSM had journalists in the U.S. all in a dither, now proves to be a flash in the pan from the last US election. Whew all those blogging journalists can now go back to writing regular columns thanks to the latest Pew Poll. Survey Says: Blogs Not Replacing Journalism Just Yet

Of course blogging is a personal journal type of activity as the poll found out. Journal writing, hmmm journalism, gee what could the connection be? Samuel Pepys perhaps.

For all the stories on this poll click here.


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Right Wing Rapture Over Israels War

I commented here yesterday on how the American Right Wing Fundamentalist Christians view Israel as the source of the Rapture and the second coming of Christ. I was not the only one to note this fact.

Cheerleading the Apocalypse

And then, of course, there is the Republican base, the people who stand by Mr. Bush because they believe him to be the right arm of Jesus Christ. The fundamentalist far-right branch of Christianity that has established itself as the most powerful force in electoral politics is heeded by this administration because they owe their tenure to these people.

A lot of them are thrilled by what is happening in the Middle East. An internet forum called "Rapture Ready" offers some insight into that particular breed of right-wing Christian who cannot wait for the Apocalypse. "Gosh!!!" writes one poster, "Here we are making plans to move to the east coast and we might not even have to move after all. I say, come quickly Lord!!!"

"Israel is not a land of un-walled villages so this is probably a war that will result in that," writes another poster. "Then Gog and Magog will come. But I believe we could be raptured before. I believe before Damascus is destroyed God may rescue His children out of there." Yet another poster writes, "In another thread, someone brought up the fact that the kidnapping of the first Israeli soldier that started this whole thing was on June 25th, and if you count from that day to August 3rd ... it is EXACTLY 40 days!!!!! I find that to be a HUGE coincidence."

Etc.

Mr. Bush is accounted as the unofficial leader of these people, listens to them, and has surrounded himself with violent men who share violent dreams.



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The Reason For American Silence Over Lebanon

Thousands of Israeli bombs have fallen on Lebanese homes, roads, bridges, ports, broadcasting towers and even a lighthouse, killing hundreds of people, mainly civilians, in the campaign against Hezbollah guerrillas. Analysts say Israel's targeting of civilian and government infrastructure overshadows its strikes on the offices and rocket launchers of Hezbollah guerrillas, whose capture of two Israeli soldiers triggered the attacks. Military analysts question value of bombing civilian targets

Just like the Clinton administrations war on Serbia, where in order to free Kosovo they bombed civilian targets. Thus the reason for the silence of the Bush regime over Israels actions.That so called humanitarian war will continue to haunt the Americans and their allies.


Also See:

Israel

Lebanon


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Harper Micro-Management Disaster


Foreign affairs put Harper to test

In an interview, the prime minister concluded his longest foreign tour -- and his most serious predicament -- with the frank observation."One of the biggest surprises I've had in this job has been the degree to which foreign policy has really taken a lot of my time," he said as he prepared to board his plane for the return flight home.

Oh sure so he micro-manages Foreign Affairs, when he has a Minister to do that for him. Instead the PMO had to approve every little thing being done around the crisis in Lebanon, including the usual keeping their actions underwraps from the media. Our autocratic PM's involvement meant that this evacuation became a disaster in the waiting thanks to his micro-management. His useless trip to Cyprus was another photo-op, when in fact he could have sent his Air Bus there empty to pick up Canadians, and flown home on the Canadian Challenger. The Harper mission of mercy was a cynical political ploy, the reality is that the PMO screwed up the rescue mission by its inherent need to keep King Stephen's fingers in every pie. Now he has pie on his face.

Evacuation begins in earnest

The government reacted angrily to a report in Thursday's Globe and Mail that micromanagement by the Prime Minister's Office contributed to confusion and delays surrounding the evacuation of Canadians from Beirut.

Mr. MacKay leaped to the defence of the PMO and strongly criticized the story in a letter to the editor that he released to other media.

The report said there were not enough staff at the Canadian embassy in Beirut to cope with the thousands of frantic Canadians seeking help and described the difficulties in organizing an evacuation by water when there were no Canadian naval vessels in the area and many countries were bidding for the same commercial ships.

Federal sources said the situation was exacerbated by the Prime Minister's centralized command and communications policies and an edict from Sandra Buckler, the Prime Minister's communications director, that no information be released on the evacuation efforts.

Also See:

Israel

Lebanon




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Media Bias

Media Matters Finds Conservative Bias on Sunday Interview Shows

In the US on both Network and Cable News shows. Say it ain't so!

Come on this ain't news. Just compare US coverage of the News compared to BBC World or CBC all American news talk shows are to the right. Heck compare Hard Talk on BBC to Hardball on MSNBC, on Hardtalk they crucified Rumsfeld, he actually was sweating, especially when Tim Sebastian asked him about his trip to Iraq to seal a deal with Saddam. On Hardball Chris Mattews likes to run the ad where he gets Rumsfeld to stumble on an anwser....to a mundane light weight question.

While the world burns, floods, explodes in the US news is navel gazing stories about lost kids, car chases, etc.

When it comes to Sunday Talk and Politics News programing, well sheesh the only TV program that comes close to being capable being like BBC or CBC or heck even Question Period on CTV is the Daily Show. And it's on the comedy channel.



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Thursday, July 20, 2006

A New Priority


The Harpocrites have replaced one of their Five priorities with another. Though of course it wasnn't part of their election campaign. That is they have replaced their priority about Health Care Wait Times with the new priority; Resolute Unquestioning Support For Israel.

Also See:

Israel

Lebanon


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The Death Of A Tory Majority

Its the shrug heard around the world.

Canadian government indifferent to Israel’s murder of eight of its citizens

And each death in Lebanon will be the death of a Majority for the Harpocrite Tories.


Left Behind in lebanon
And then there is that other constituency: Lebanese-Canadians. Canadians outnumber all other foreigners in Lebanon. The numbers actually range from the popularly accepted 40,000 to as many as 60,000. Mr. Harper would be unwise to write off the fair and personal concerns of this valued constituency. But today, Lebanese-Canadians are feeling they have been tossed aside by the PM. While they may have had some criticisms of Canada's evacuation plans, their enduring issue won't be evacuation. It will be the life and death of those who are left behind in Lebanon.

Mideast talk scorches PM
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government is under fire for swiftly taking sides in the Mideast crisis while delivering a tardy response to evacuating Canadians whose lives are endangered in the war zone.


Also See:

Israel

Lebanon


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