Inhuman Monster Posing as a Religious Leader Calls for.......

I never thought I would momentarily regret my own opposition to summary executions until now.

Jihadist calls for gang rape in Syria

An influential Saudi cleric has called for the gang rape of Syrian women to give "warriors of Islam" fighting in the war-torn country some sexual relief.

Muhammed al-Arifi, described by news site AlterNet which carried the news as a "leading jihadist religious figure", says militants should enter short-term "intercourse marriages" of only a few hours "in order to give each fighter a turn".

Any females over the age of 14 are considered eligible "brides", says al-Arifi, who claims it has "been two years since the jihadists were last with women", according to a report. His fatwa would "boost the determination of the mujahideen in Syria and is considered a duty to enter paradise for those females who enter such marriages".

Republicans and Medicaid: Things Change When You're at the Line of Scrimmage

Republicans like to say that there's no such thing as a free lunch, America is about taking care of yourself, the government is a poor substitute for charity, and so on.

They say this, of course, until they themselves get hit by a medical emergency or major illness. You can sit back in judgement of the poor all day long when your skin isn't in the game. But when suddenly you're at the line of scrimmage ready to butt heads with fate, wow, things sure do look different, don't they?

Sen. Kirk says stroke changed perspective on Medicaid

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) said his debilitating stroke has sparked a new interest in the experience of people on Medicaid. 

In an interview published Wednesday, Kirk said that most Illinois residents insured through the low-income health program would be eligible for just 11 rehabilitation sessions following a stroke. 

"Had I been limited to that I would have had no chance to recover like I did. So unlike before suffering the stroke, I’m much more focused on Medicaid and what my fellow citizens face," Kirk told the Chicago Sun Times. 

Republican Governor and Vicious Bully Chris Christie re: His Fellow Republicans

The Disease of Neo-Calvinism

What is Neo-Calvinism? It is a religious belief that stigmatizes the poor. It is the very root of modern capitalism and right-wing economic thinking. It is an ideology evolved from Calvinism itself, which by adopting the misguided concept of "predetermination", first threw the door open for the neo-Calvinist belief that poverty came from spiritual deficiency.

The Religious Roots of Modern Poverty Policy: Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed Protestant Traditions Compared

Calvinism developed two different, and partially contradicting, ideas of poverty, which both stigmatized the poor: One is the doctrine of predestination in Calvin’s writings; the other is the ethos of work and individual responsibility. Predestination states that God’s “unconditional election” creates every human being as either damned or saved prior to birth. The condemnation of the poor did not necessarily follow from this, and it was not explicit in Calvin’s writings. Calvinists, however, were searching for signs of damnation or salvation. As Borkenau shows, the principle of understanding a morally rigorous worldly life and economic success as signs of election marks the last step in the emergence of a Calvinist moral in 17th century England, Holland and United States (Borkenau 1980 [1934]:154-161).

And from this, we come to the sorry state of modern America:

Poverty: America's Greatest Shame

About half of the people in American have the wrong idea and attitude about the cause and the nature of poverty, and, because of what they've been led to believe by the religious and political leaders they follow, they tend to generalize and blame the victims.
That attitude is, of course, partly the result of a human tendency to judge others as inferior. However, it is mostly the result of carefully crafted political propaganda cloaked as religious truths. It was not created by accident, or by coincidence. It was created and spread deliberately.

Why? Because some people who gain great wealth become greedy and selfish, and they want everyone to believe in a lie --- that the rich are blessed by God and the poor deserve to be poor because they "lack faith" and are just "lazy and not self-reliant."

That's what many wealthy people themselves want to believe, and it's what they want everyone else to believe. And its what the most influential American political figure of the last half of the 20th Century,Ronald Reagan, led many Americans to believe. But it's not true. In fact, as you will see, that idea and attitude is not only the opposite of the intent of Jesus of Nazareth, but in violation of the intent of the Founders of the United States of America.

Wal Mart Will Now Police Its Suppliers. Really, They Will!

And if you believe that then I've got oceanfront property in Omaha to sell you, too.

As Walmart Makes Safety Vows, It’s Seen as Obstacle to Change

When Walmart’s chief executive, Michael Duke, appeared at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting in New York this month, a raucous crowd of protesters awaited him. Walmart was confronting reports of bribery in Mexico, a wave of labor demonstrations in the United States and, perhaps most critically, questions about a grisly fire that had killed 112 workers at a Bangladeshi garment factory used by several Walmart suppliers.

“We will not buy from an unsafe factory,” Mr. Duke told the audience. “If a factory is not going to operate with high standards, then we would not purchase from that factory.”

But Mr. Duke’s reassurances that Walmart enforces high standards in the global clothing industry appear to be contradicted by inspection reports it requested and some of Walmart’s own internal communications...

Another Reason Why the Police Have Outlived Their Usefulness: Teen Shot Dead While HANDCUFFED!

Police departments need to be de-funded en masse, rolling layout-style, these pig cops fired, and new applicants rigorously filtered to weed out these murderous psychopaths. And I don't mean just fire the cops, I mean fire EVERYONE, and rebuild the whole system from scratch. As one former police chief says (quote below), the law enforcement system creates psychopaths, it doesn't just hire them.

To prevent the "ultimate lawless chaos" scare scenario (aka pro-police gang propaganda) these departments need to be shut down one or two at a time, and rebuilt from scratch.

Handcuffed teen, Lamon Khiry Haslip, shot and killed by police in southern California

(CBS) - An 18-year-old California man was shot dead by police last week while he was handcuffed and on the ground. Police say he was carrying a loaded handgun.

According to a statement issued by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, officers responded to a "gang-related 'man with a gun'" call in Moreno Valley at 8:38 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 28.

Once there, the statement says, witnesses told the first officer on the scene that the men brandishing weapons had left in a car, but as the officer was taking suspect descriptions, the car drove by and "a male exited the vehicle and attempted to flee on foot."

And here's some testimony by former police chief Norm Stamper:

Former Police Chief on Cop Brutality: "Law Enforcement Doesn't Pick Bad Apples; It Makes Them"

So, how do we prevent this kind of behavior in the future?

Please don't say through (1) more thorough screening of law enforcement candidates, or (2) better training. They're both important, of course. Critical, in fact. But law enforcement, for the most part, doesn't pick bad apples. It makes them, and not through academy training.

Forty-three years ago I was an idealistic, vaguely liberal 21-year-old when the San Diego Police Department hired me. The last thing on my mind was taking to the streets to punish people. And lest there be any doubt about the department's policy, the police academy, even then, drove it home: excessive force was grounds for termination.

So, why did I abuse the very people I'd been hired to serve?

Not to get too psychological, I did it because the power of my position went straight to my head; because other cops I'd come to admire did it; and because I thought I could get away with it. Which I did -- until a principled prosecutor slapped me upside the head and demanded to know whether the U.S. Constitution meant anything to me.

The police gangs of New York City didn't even care to respect the opinion of a retired police chief, in this case Captain Ray Lewis. Instead, they arrested him and trumped up a bunch of phony charges to justify it. Why? Because retired Captain Ray Lewis was protesting alongside Occupy Wall Street. Fortunately, these charges look like they will be dismissed as bogus.

Former Captain Ray Lewis Charged With Three Violations After OWS Protest; More Photos Of His Arrest

Retired Philadelphia police Captain Ray Lewis, arrested yesterday after joining up with the Occupy Wall Street process, has quickly become one of the more iconic figures from the movement’s two month’s anniversary.

After we noted his arrest and put up several pictures of the event, we were contacted by everyone from The Associated Press to worried parents who thought they could find their son, who had been in the same paddy-wagon as Captain Lewis.

Nowadays the cops are so bad that our politicians consider them to be their own personal army. Consider the arrogant (and also inaccurate) words of the current New York mayor and billionaire, Michael Bloomberg:

Michael Bloomberg: "I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world."

This is the modern role of law enforcement - to serve as the army of the Plutocracy.

It's time to de-fund these people, take away their power and their weapons, and rebuild from scratch.

A Green Mini-Revolution in Progress?

Worms Produce Another Kind of Gold for Growers

SONOMA, Calif. — Under rows of old chicken sheds, Jack Chambers has built an empire of huge metal boxes filled with cattle manure and millions of wriggling red worms. 

“My buddies all had planes and boats,” said Mr. Chambers, 60, a former airline pilot. “I have a worm farm.”

Mr. Chambers’s two decades of investment in what he calls an “underground movement” may be paying off. New research suggests that the product whose manufacture he helped pioneer, a worm-created soil additive called vermicompost, offers an array of benefits for plants — helping them grow with more vigor, and making them more resistant to disease and insects, than those grown with other types of composts and fertilizers.