The Myth of Left Wing Terrorism

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

This week in San Francisco, a small group of activists staged an action of civil disobedience in reaction to the shooting deaths of Charles Blair Hill and Oscar Grant by BART police. They disrupted commuter traffic on the transit system and prompted police to temporarily shut down some stations. This might be considered an act of terrorism, but the greatest fear it instilled was the fear that one of the activists might get hurt or the fear of being late for dinner. The arrest count was astonishing.

( Leftist activism today is...  )

The State of White People in America

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Recent research by Harvard Business School Professors Michael I. Norton and Samuel R. Sommers and published in the peer reviewed journal Perspectives on Psychological Sciences finds that many white Americans today believe that discrimination against whites is currently a greater problem than discrimination against blacks and other racial minorities. When asked to rate the severity of anti-black and anti-white bias in society from the 1950s to the current decade, both black and white respondents agreed that anti-black bias had dropped sharply, although blacks surveyed rated the severity of the current day as greater. However, the most divergent response was the rating of anti-white bias where black respondents rated anti-white bias as rising very slightly between 1950 to 1970 and remaining flat since then, whites saw themselves steadily as being on the receiving end of more and more bias, rating themselves currently as recipients of bias against their race almost as severe as black respondents believe they receive. The authors note that one of the most striking features of their data is the degree to which black and white respondents both agreed that anti-black racial bias was very high in the 1950s and has fallen sharply, but the degree to which they disagree about the severity of anti-white bias since that time.

( This is where is gets complicated )

David Cay Johnston Issues Apology For False Accusations Against News Corp

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

David Cay Johnston, the Reuters reporter whose debut column accused News Corp of receiving tax refunds though they didn't pay taxes, had to issue a hasty apology when it was revealed the opposite was true - the $4.8 billion figure was what News Corp PAID in taxes, not what they received as a refund.

Readers, I apologize. The premise of my debut column for Reuters, on News Corp’s taxes, was wrong, 100 percent dead wrong.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp did not get a $4.8 billion tax refund for the past four years, as I reported. Instead, it paid that much in cash for corporate income taxes for the years 2007 through 2010 while earning pre-tax profits of $10.4 billion.

For the first time in my 45-year-old career I am writing a skinback. That is what journalists call a retraction of the premise of a piece, as in peeling back your skin and feeling the pain. I will do all I can to make sure everyone who has read or heard secondary reports based on my column also learns the facts and would appreciate the help of readers in that cause.

[Source - Reuters]

Mind you, this person was hired by Reuters as "an investigative journalist with an expertise in economics and taxes." So how could an expert make a mistake as huge as this?

Tax is my beat, and I was simply looking for what the record showed since Mr. Murdoch is much in the news these days.

In other words, any excuse to dig the knife deeper.

Before being hired by Reuters, Johnston wrote for The New York Times and The Nation, a primarily Liberal publication.

Pride, Personal Exploration, and Class Warfare.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

This post started as a reply to malasadas' post on The State of White People in America incorperating elemenents of a reply I made to amazements earlier untitled post, that grew out of hand.

For the most part I find myself agreeing with malasadas' observations, but there is a critical aspect that I think many on the Right tend to gloss-over and most on th Left outright ignore. I feel that this is also the cause of the percieved discrimination against whites.

( Read more... )

All hail our spaghetti overlord!

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

Since we're about Religion Month... Here's what a prank an Austrian guy did the other day. Niko Alm applied for a driving license in Vienna, wearing a plastic colander on his head on the photo. Yep, a strainer for filtering spaghetti! And, surprise-surprise! The application was approved! Because Niko had explained that his strange headgear was a "pastafar", i.e. his religious hat. Here, look for yourselves!

This guy defines himself as an atheist, and follower of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The website of this "movement" says that the only dogma in their doctrine is the rejection of any dogmas.

The Austrian police announced that his photo was approved because it had met the only important requirement: the citizen's face should be perfectly visible on the photo. They also explained that their decision had nothing to do with the guy's religious beliefs.

However, before the issuing of the driving license, Niko had to go through the regular psycho test to prove that he was able to drive a motor vehicle. And even after he passed the test successfully it took about a year for the document to be issued.

The eccentric guy says that since the Austrian authorities allow the issuing of official documents with all sorts of religious hats on the head, he should have the right to demonstrate his faith (or lack of it) as he pleases. I say bravo, Austria! And bravo, Niko. You've set a curious precedent, and touched on a deeper issue about religious tolerance, the freedom of confession and, if you like, on the burqa debate.

Americans and "The Beautiful Game"

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

If you are a typical American, you may have missed the news that rocked international sports fans -- the American women's team has advanced to the final match of the World Cup. If the American team wins against Japan on Sunday, it will be the third time since 1991 that the American women have taken the World Cup title. Since 1996, the American women's team has also captured 3 Olympic Gold Medals.

In any other country in the world, I would have learned this news by hoardes of fans pouring onto the streets outside my apartment building, singing, chanting and crying.

But I live in America. I didn't even know the game was being played. I bet most of the rest of the Americans on this board didn't know either.

Why is that? How does the game that is beloved to the point of delirium around the world manage to face such indifference at the professional level in the U.S.? Throngs of American children play the game only to grow up as typically indifferent adults. Is this another form of "American exceptionalism" or are we just dolts?

A Final Solution to the Problem of Religion

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

We have to rid the world of Judaism. Judaism is based on the stupid notion that some particular god exists. We know that this cannot be the case, because we can detect everything that exists with our senses and/or the various devices we build for detecting things. Also, if the god the Jews made up existed, it would never have allowed Hitler to kill so many of them. As a matter of fact, if there was a god, nobody would ever die—because no real god would have ever allowed any life to end. Ever.

Also, we can appropriately hold Judaism responsible for the emergence of those other two horrific belief-systems: Christianity and Islam. Christianity is responsible for more wars than any other belief-system ever in history. And believing in Islam makes you blow yourself up to get imaginary girls in the next life. So we should nip Judaism in the bud before it creates some other disastrous belief-system—like one that makes you want to get as much money as you can in life no matter how it affects others. If that ever happened, the world would be screwed.

Please understand that I am not advocating the execution of Jews themselves. Instead, I am saying that we should become more diligent and aggressive about making sure everyone knows that Judaism is a delusional and destructive belief-system that no decent, rational person would ever accept. If we can teach this in our schools, if we can get our message out through the media, if we will not be ashamed to state these obvious truths in our daily social conversations, we might be able to eliminate the cancer of Judaism from human discourse within a generation or two.

Now I know there are those of you who are going to claim that Judaism is not entirely bad. After all, Hendrix couldn’t have recorded “All Along the Watchtower” if a Jew hadn’t written it first—and we all have a soft spot for at least one Seinfeld episode. But Judaism, as the root-cause of Western monotheism, must be viewed on balance as perhaps the greatest single evil ever foisted on humanity by a tribe of superstitious, bloodthirsty savages.

So who among you is willing to step up to the plate? Or do you want to go on pretending to be rational people—even as you continue to tolerate this singularly pernicious crime against reason itself?