noctisdivinus.com

European leaders on Thursday hailed Poland’s first semi-free vote as an inspiration for movements that brought down regimes across the Soviet bloc, saying on the election’s 20th anniversary that it helped pave the way for a reunited Europe.

This started the path to self governance and freedom from Communism for Poland.  A long wanted vision of the late Pope John Paul the II, who was a champion and favored son of Poland.  Not to mention my favorite pontiff of them all, so far.

I hope they enjoy the celebrations and never forget where they came from.

A quote from a 100 news stories;
“Leaders of the anti-abortion movement gathered in front of the Supreme Court Monday morning to denounce the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller, who was gunned down Sunday while attending church in Wichita, Kan.”

They take life to protect it?  What a bunch of hypocrites, humans have always killed humans and always will.  Murder is murder, murders all around. I am not going to argue abortion or not.  My point is they have made their whole argument worthless and they aren’t going to stop abortion/murder anyway.

In an editorial this week, The New York Times claimed Bagram is “the next Guantanamo” and accused the Obama administration of recycling “extravagant claims of executive power.” This is due to the fact that the Obama White house has sided with the Bush Administration view that detainees, who are in a war zone, have no right to a court review despite a ruling last year by the Supreme Court granting Guantanamo detainees those rights.

President Obama, shame on you.  The nice hot cup of habeas corpus that you so rightly served up to your republican rivals has gone a bit cold and stale now has it?  You’re the son of an African man, if you don’t understand human rights and human injustice then there is no hope black or otherwise. On top of that you are a constitutional lawyer trained at Harvard.   Having said all this, I will come back to it later.

The liberals and conservatives can take all their arguments about this and collectively go away now.  The issue, the reason, we are in this fucking mess of “detainees” in a war zone (OMFG!!) is pure political bullshit.  It is a war, we were attacked but didn’t declare war on anyone, which I still don’t understand.  Prisoners of war have established, recognized international rights that would if applied put half of the previous US administration in prison for a really long time.   “Detainees” in this context is some bullshit made up by politicians that don’t want to play by the rules their predecessors spent generations creating.  Every square inch of earth that is a US possession where there are “detainees”, said “detainees” have by law of our Constitution habeas corpus.  So we have grey area now called Afghanistan that we sort of have real estate in, just like we do in Cuba.  It is no different than the situation in Guantanamo.  No other country that claims to be free does this to people.  Most of our allies don’t do this although some of our “new” friends do, like eastern bloc countries.  This is just plain wrong, its not what our fathers and grand fathers fought and in some cases died for, for us to do this.

Some conservatives have made the argument that if we give them access to our courts that then they will be our problem.  That is fucking stupid, they are our problem.  You dumb asses, this is where things like the Taliban and al-Qaida come from.  We go into a country manipulate the people to achieve a goal (defeating the Soviet Union in Afghanistan) then bail without any of the promised help we talked about when we first got there and needed them to do something.  We leave them high and dry and they get a little pissed about it.  This isn’t a “liberal” view, I could give a shit about liberals.  They are just as messed up and one sided as conservatives.  This is a historical fact about Afghanistan.  The next issue is the “detainees” will want to come to America and stay (when and if we release them from prison)  The liberals are cool with this and conservatives use it to justify what we are currently continuing to do in Bagram.  I say you’re both nuts.  There is no way we need to let convicted terrorists live in this country, its called congress getting off their collective asses and passing laws to constitutionally deal with this issue.  That restores the character of the US.

Ok, back to you Mr. President.  I voted for you, so I have the right to point out to you that you are screwing up.  You sold us a bill of goods about habeas corpus on your campaign air plane and went into specifics about how Guantanamo is wrong.  You are being a hypocrite and you make me ashamed that I voted for you.  This is a very complex and messed up situation and it can be addressed without you being a hypocrite and sullying the character of this great nation or putting it at more risk.  A nation our parents and grand parents lived their lives to make great.

First I want to say that the US Navy (and the US Navy SEALS) and captain Richard Phillips exhibited the greatest of part of the character of the people of the United States of America to the whole world not just those bastard pirates.  This is true unadulterated American spirit, what I mean by that is.  The pirates picked a US ship finally, and before the US government could fuck it up like they have with the two wars we are in.  The pirates got a taste of the honour and dedication to duty of their fellow shipmates and country persons that captain Richard Phillips and the US Navy have.  It was on display for the whole world and it is a beautiful thing to behold.

Now the pirates want revenge on the US.  They claim that Europe is dumping nuclear and chemical waste into their waters and that fishermen from other countries are stealing all their fish.  This is why they justify committing acts of piracy on all other nations passing through international waters near their base of operations.  Fuck them, there is no excuse or license for committing piracy on anyone.  Revenge, they have no license to that either.  They have not been wronged by any of the merchant ships they have taken.  They are just a bunch of pirates!

Now if they are tired of people stealing their fish and ruining their waters then they need to get a government together to enforce their rights not what they are doing now.  These are dishonourable people who are taken the soul of Somali away from its children.   At the same time trying to use these children as a license for their acts..   For crying out loud they should just run for the US congress.  They make as much money via the same means and probably nobody would get killed.

The middle east exhausts me.  The sons of Ishmael and Isaac have been fighting each other for thousands of years.  This hate has survived the crusades and the holocaust to come to modern day where they only live to spill the blood of each other’s children.  How does man kind over come such evil that breeds such hate?  Don’t get me wrong, I am not placing blame on anyone.  If someone came into my country and killed my family, my wife and child.   I would spend the rest of my life making war on that people and I would never be able to kill enough of them.  So I completely understand the mind set of both parties. 

I also wonder a great deal how the world would be if there wasn’t this broken house of Abraham that has spawned from it the monotheistic religions of the world.  What if the Jews and the Muslims had lived in peace and love for the last three thousand years?  What would the world look like? You would think as an “infidel” I wouldn’t like such an idea but I know the world would be a different place than it is now and I have a lot of hope that if the sons of Ishmael and Isaac found a way to love one another that the rest of the world would follow their lead. 

So Benedict is in Angola telling the faithful to that they must divert their fellow Angolans from malign beliefs in witchcraft and sorcery.  The pope asked rhetorically: “Why not leave them in peace? They have their truth, and we have ours.” He then answered that there was no injustice in presenting the ways of Christ to others, granting “them the opportunity of finding their truest and most authentic selves” and offering them “this possibility of attaining eternal life.”  Coming from a religion that still authorizes the murder of witches in it’s holy text (Deuteronomy 18:10 or Exodus 22:18), this seems kind of a softer tone and it stems from his genuine desire to stop some of the most heinous acts of violence to children and the elderly, who are condemned and often killed for being witches or sorcerers.   So I give him points for that.  Although I continue to think that his faithful will demean, ridicule, and harm the faithful of any other religion.  That fail to be swayed from their own beliefs by the  “ways of Christ” and the history of the catholic church bares this out.

The dark ages continue; 22 million people are living with AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1.9 million new infections in 2007, and 1.5 million people died last year.  Yet this vicar of Christ still forbids the use and distribution of condoms.

“The International AIDS Society on Friday condemned Pope Benedict XVI’s denunciation of condoms as outrageous and insulting, warning that his comments could fuel HIV infection in devout Africa.”

The pope’s comments; “Benedict said on the plane taking him to Cameroon that AIDS “cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems.”

The IAS insisted that condoms are a critical, cheap and proven element in HIV prevention.

“Instead of spreading ignorance, the Pope should use his global position of leadership to encourage young people, who are our future, to protect themselves and others from HIV infection using all the tools we have at our disposal, including condoms,” said IAS president Julio Montaner.

“His remarks are insulting to the tireless efforts of committed scientific, public health and human rights leaders around the world to protect the poorest of the poor from HIV infection.”

On November 1st 1990 my brother died of AIDs.  So you will understand if I don’t agree with a religion that has to demean and denounce any other ideology than its own.  This is the fundamental flaw of all monotheism.

Technorati Tags: pope, catholic, AIDS, Africa

It seems to me that all the crap about AIG and in general the whole banking bailout crisis is just one more example of our failed government protecting their buddies and covering their asses.  They all knew (democrat and republican alike) about the bonuses to AIG and the other companies that took our (and our children’s and grand children’s) cash and had no plans to do anything about it, other than laugh all the way to their bank (or where ever the hell they put the money they take from us).  Until we really got pissed, but we aren’t pissed enough.  All I see them doing is playing out some drama to convince us they are doing something about it.  Obama has completely rolled over how can he look us in the face and act surprised now (no its not a question).  These people that call themselves our government have betrayed us (and our children) and ruined our country and we are going to let them get away with it.  This is what keeps me up at night now..  I wonder how many other people feel this way.

I grieve for her sons and husband.  It always terrible when someone dies too soon, with unfinished business.  Her two sons robbed of their loving mother’s presence and the half a life time together, stolen from Liam and her.   I hope they all find some peace with this in the coming season.  Surely she will watch over them from now until they join her.

Natasha Richardson