Article by Reza Aslan

People don’t learn their values from religious teachings, according to Reza Aslan. During an appearance Wednesday night on The Daily Show, the religious scholar argued the situation was reversed — people infused scripture with their own personal values.

“There is obviously a serious problem with religious violence, and particularly with Islam and in the Middle East,” he remarked. “But if you’re going to blame religion for violence in the name of religion, then you have to credit religion for every act of compassion in the name of religion, you have to credit religion for every act of love in the name of religion, and that’s not what people usually think. They focus very much on the negative.”

“Part of the problem is that there is this misconception that people derive their values from their scriptures,” Aslan added. “The truth is it is more often the case that people insert their values into their scriptures. I mean, otherwise, every Christian who read the Bible would read it exactly the same way. In this country, not 200 years ago, both slave owners and abolitionists not only used the same Bible to justify their viewpoints, they used the same verses to do so. That’s the thing about scripture, it’s power comes from its malleability. You can read it in any way you want to.”

“If you are a violent misogynist, you will find plenty in the Koran or in the Bible to justify your viewpoint. If you’re a peaceful feminist, you will find just as much in those scriptures to justify your viewpoint.”

“What if you’re a Jew who loves a bacon egg sandwich?” host Jon Stewart interjected.

“I would recommend the Book of Mormon,” Aslan jokingly replied. “The point is that without interpretation scripture is just words on a page, it requires somebody to read it, to encounter it for it to have any kind of meaning, and obviously in that transaction you are bringing yourself, your views, your politics, your social ideas into the text. How you read scripture has everything to do with who you are. God did not make you a bigot, you’re just a bigot.”

In the extended portion of the interview uploaded online, Aslan said trying to completely divorce religion from violence was also wrong.

“We need to resist saying ISIS has nothing to do with Islam or that violence in the name of religion has nothing to do with religion. Of course it has to do with religion. If ISIS calls itself Muslim, we should probably take them seriously,” he said.

“I’m OK with you saying ISIS is Muslim as long as you realize that the tens of thousands of people that they kill are also Muslim, and the tens of thousands of people fighting them are also Muslims. So if ISIS is Muslim, and their victims are Muslim, and the people fighting them are Muslim — that doesn’t really say anything all that interesting about Islam itself.”

https://youtu.be/PzusSqcotDw

Alas for Us: We have Rightists

{… a long-ish rhyme …}

It’s EXACTLY what Islamicists want:

that Rightists vigorously flaunt

their self-righteous wrath,

and march on war’s path

as of drum-beats of war they {boast} vaunt.

… …

Stupidly, our Right helps THEIR side!! -

- as the world’s tense cultures collide.

… …

Alas for us: -

- It’s a war of cultures

in which WE are regarded as vampire-like vultures.

So it’s WE who’re thought of as rapaciously evil.

Alas for us: -

- it’s a war asymmetric,

so we can’t cope with their methods so hectic,

which they design for our internal upheaval.

… …

The Rightists don’t know the above,

so they steam-roll and push and shove

so stubbornly to our Own defeat.

They’re with stupidity replete.

===================================

committee of 300, club of rome agenda

For more than 100 years, the United States, and other western nations, have been meddling in the affairs of the Middle Eastern countries, for various goals; and THAT, in my humble opinion, is why the Middle Eastern countries hate us.

It is long past time for us to apologize to the Middle East for all of this meddling, and pull out COMPLETELY. They need to solve their problems themselves; outsiders have not been able to solve those problems and never will. Even if the entire middle east self-destructs in a nuclear haze, it is preferable to continued interference by nations who don't have a clue about the people and cultures of the middle east.

I, as an American citizen, apologize to the entire Middle East for all the damage my country has caused; I also apologize for the fact that WE, THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, have lost control of our government; I hope we will soon regain control.

This article on ISIS is very long but amazingly helpful in understanding Da'esh.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/what-isis-really-wants/384980/

Although Hillary notes that most of her contributors are female, what is the attributed sex of the Wallstreet superpacs which contribute multi-millions of dollars to her campaign? How many female contributors does Bernie have vis-a-vis Hillary?

My MID-SEVENTIES students agreed with academics’ thinking that America was tending FASCIST. This was 'way BEFORE the later-blooming techniques of our USofA’s Fascism, such as: √ Rightist media {deceiving big swatches of the public}, - √ Stark power of moneyed interests {corporations-etc} in politics-hence-governance, - √ Highly-weaponized jack-booted {authoritarian} “citizens”, - √ Huge Militarization of our international dealings, - √ etc, Etc, ETC. … ... Among the Right’s bottom-line Lies is that it’s SOCIALISM which is endangering us.

The “Deadliest Man on Earth”

The TPP/TTIP/TiSA “trade agreement” initiatives were initiated by the Obama Administration (while Hillary was Secretary of State), so if implemented, the responsibility for the dreadful consequences of those so-called “trade agreements” (which are actually TREATIES that would require a two-thirds majority approval in the US Senate in order to be CONSTITUTIONALLY implemented) rests squarely on President Obama’s “head.”

Obama’s dishonestly promoted “trade agreements” will grant a new authority to greedy multinational corporations (and investors) to SUE all three levels of our government for alleged “losses of future expected profits” resulting from laws, regulations, or court decisions made by that government. Those Obama-authorized lawsuits would be adjudicated in corporately run multinational tribunals that can change the criteria for awarding damages whenever they choose to do so, and the taxpayers in the targeted level of government will be forced to pay the multi-million-dollar or billion-dollar fines levied by those tribunals. This means that corporate profitability will become the sole criterion for the continued existence of ALL or our laws and social safety-net programs. If implemented, it will just a be matter of time until such Obama-authorized lawsuits will bring an end to our Social Security Program, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamp program, welfare programs, labor union protections, minimum wage laws, food safety laws, etc. The same will happen to all of the other countries that “sign up” to those so-called “trade agreements.”

So, if implemented, President Obama’s so-called “trade agreements” will impoverish and/or KILL hundreds of millions of people worldwide (including a majority of US citizens) thereby giving President Obama the legacy of being the “Deadliest Man on Earth” so far in this century!

Christopher C. Currie, Pascoag, RI (Feel free to publish this)

For Thom's edification, Elton John has a song called "Saturday Night's All Right for Fighting"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqpOxaUVWwA

TAs far as speculation, even for off-season inside baseball "what if..." talk goes, this is a stretch. There's no way the American public will go for two of the biggest representative public figures in the GOP who just also happen to be the faces of New York City (not upstate) and New Jersey. I'm a Yankee fan, but I know how hated they are outside the greater Tri-State population base. And when the KC Royals beat the Mets, few people were reaching for their tissue boxes across most of the country.

This would be Claire McCaskill's ideal GOP ticket for her fav Hillary Clinton to face, notwithstanding the fact that the Democrats have long been The Northeastern Liberal party for decades. But Hillary Clinton does have midwestern roots and served as First Lady in Arkansas for 12 years.

A Trump/Christie or Christie/Trump ticket would be more problematical for Bernie Sanders because if the voters are so sick of the Republicans and see "nawtheast" in both of their top guys, that'll hurt voter turnout and the Democrats need a solid tuirnout, period. Especially if the GOP manages to get the public to overlook the regional disparity in a GOP ticket favoring an aleady well-off quarter of the country so many other Americans living outside of it have long been resentful of all the attention it gets. It matters not a whit that it's the oldest part, the most urbanized, the most powerful in terms of media power ... the simple fact that our nation's population as a whole has long shifted westward for decades ... that alone should send enough warning lights for any GOP ticket balancing pollster to drop the idea as if it was radioactive. Politically speaking, it is.

Even more so for the Democrats since Hillary Clinton is now a New Yorker and represented the state in the Senate for 8 years. And Bernie Sanders has built his entire political career in Vermont, in addition to being a Brooklyn native. How New York can you get besides Manhattan's Trump?

True, Bill Clinton picked his neighbor Al Gore from TN to be his running mate for both terms, but a look at the map provides Bubba some cover: Just look at the swath of mileage of turf where their constituents lived in at the time and how centrally located both Arkansas and Tennessee are for geographical and demographical reasons. You're really talking about Middle America with Branson in Arkansas and Nashville in Tennessee.

Geographical ticket balancing might seem as old hat to a lot of our more bean-counting oriented and poll-taking politicos in this insta-media impacted time ... but never underestimate the regional esteem and pride of voters across the land. And one more thing ... personalities. Even if the voters like the positions of the team, two very brash representatives of the same region will be overkill. Even if some Democrats get a similarly "bright idea" of proposing a Hillary/Bernie or Bernie/Hillary ticket ... it'd still be seen as a lopsided NY-favored deal since both Clinton and Sanders are from neighboring states ... even if Vermont and Upstate NY seem as far as Mars from Manhattan compared to the Guv from Joisy and the Big Mouth of Manhattan.

One last thing, Vermonters would just as soon slit their wrists than see Bernie have to settle for second place on a ticket headed by a New Yorker, no matter who it was. This would be as bad or insulting as having to settle for second place to a New Hampshire-ite, no matter how progressive. They might tolerate a Bay Stater to their south like Jim McGovern, but McGovern's district, covering parts of western Massachusetts, remains too close for the rest of the nation's usual desire to see more distance between their President and Veep's home turf.

Wow, I'd just hate to see the wrangling and political eye-poking and finger pointing that'd go on if THE BRIDGE was ever shut down during the final week of the campaign if any of these possible "too close for comfort tickets" was just able to catch the other party's pair, especially if it, too, was just another nawthustern pay-uh.

I've been a native New Englander all my life. But I've lived elsewhere as a military dependent and college student in Miami-Dade ... and all I can say is ... The more I thought about all the negatives by the time it came to close out ... I hope to hell the Republicans are dumb enough to do it!

For Prez: Bernie

{… a rhyme …}

Bernie has himself ingratiated

vis-a-vis us, who are satiated

by what he says.

Let’s make him Prez.

He’s SO much better’n the emaciated

souls of the Right

which don’t shine so bright

and which with nonsense are permeated.

… ….

From Rightwingers’ souls it’s Evil which emanates,

and Intelligence their brain completely decimates. -

- Bernie’s their opposite. A Progressive celebrates

the values and policies which Bernie explicates.

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