Things to consider—

Since early 2011, Obama's been waging proxy war on Syria. Imported death squads masquerade as freedom fighters. The scheme's familiar. It repeats. It reflects US imperialism's dark side. In the 1980s, CIA-recruited mujahideen fighters battled Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers. Ronald Reagan called them "the moral equivalent of our founding fathers." He characterized Contra killers the same way. —Stephen LendmanFor over a century now US ambassadors have acted as fifth columns in the nations they are embedded in, their role chiefly to foster corporate and plutocratic power and coordinate machinations against any truly pro-democratic government.•••••"The dead end identity politics of SF Pride, which sells out a peace hero like Bradley Manning to curry favor with the American ruling class, is what I had in mind. The empire loves your tameness, irrelevance and cowardice, SF Pride. You don’t bother the American ruling class — a five foot two, 105 pound soldier does because he has a conscience and because he didn’t make comfort the guiding principle of his life...." —Randy Shields

Bruce Willis: Annals of Secularism

 AMERICAN STUDIES, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, GREAT HYPOCRISY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGIOSITY & SUPERSTITION  1 Response »
Mar 192013
 
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Willis, sporting his signature tough guy smirk.

Willis, sporting his signature tough guy smirk.

 

Although he’s a decent actor—his role as a rogue pugilist in Pulp Function was simply memorable—we don’t care a whole lot for Bruce Willis’ political persona, which, in general tacks right.  That said, the below material shows a surprisingly cogent understanding of the anachronistic rot represented by religion, and for that reason we salute him. —P. Greanville

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Freethought of the Day

BRUCE WILLIS / March 19, 2013  On this date in 1955, actor Bruce Willis, ne Walter Bruce Willis, was born on a military base in Germany. He grew up in PennsGrove, New Jersey, attended Montclair State College, New Jersey, then moved to New York City. Willis waited on tables and bartended while looking for acting jobs. He was (type)cast for one of his first roles as a bartender by a director who spotted him tending bar. Willis’ TV break came in the series “Moonlighting” (1985). Continue reading »

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Penis Snatching on the Rise — Africa’s Genital-Stealing Crime Wave Hits the Countryside

 AFRICA, RELIGIOSITY & SUPERSTITION  Comments Off
Mar 182013
 
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Weird but true—

Voodoo shrine: Backwardness permits superstitious and other traditions to survive.

Voodoo shrine: Backwardness permits superstitious and other traditions to survive.

An anthropologist has reported a rise in the much-feared “penis snatching,” a horrific phenomenon in which voodoo-type men steal other men’s units by means of electric handshakes and other magical gestures (whatever that means). The wild incidents have reportedly increased in recent years, which UC Berkley postdoctoral fellow Louisa Lombard attributes to an “occult economy,” possibly due to capitalism and the global downturn.  

Pacific Standard [1] / By Louisa Lombard [2]
Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 5:46 pm

The Pope and Politics—the innumerable reasons why American television news is garbage

 ABOMINATIONS, AMERICAN STUDIES, CLASS COLLABORATION, CORPORATE MENTALITY, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, HEADLINERS, HUMBUG CENTRAL, IMPERIAL APOLOGISTS & COLLABOS, LatinAm-ARGENTINA, MEDIA CRITICISM, PLUTOCRATIC POWER, PUTRID CORPOMEDIA, RELIGIOSITY & SUPERSTITION, THE PENTAGON-MEDIA COMPLEX  1 Response »
Mar 162013
 
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weigel-nbc

Argentine cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was chosen as the new pope this week. But coverage often glossed over the most intense political controversies about him.  On NBC Nightly News (3/13/13), the network’s Vatican analyst George Weigel told viewers that Pope Francis was “a man of God… a man who is a great defender of democracy in a country where democracy is under real stress right now in Argentina.” Continue reading »

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The “Dirty War” Pope [and the filthy media, again]

 ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CONSERVATIVES & REACTION, CORPORATE TELEVISION, CULTURE & CRITICISM, GREAT HYPOCRISY, IMPERIAL APOLOGISTS & COLLABOS, RELIGIOSITY & SUPERSTITION  5 Responses »
Mar 162013
 
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BILL VAN AUKEN, wsws.org

“The Argentinean Catholic church support was by no means platonic. The junta’s detention and torture centers were assigned priests, whose job it was, not to minister to those suffering torture and death, but to help the torturers and killers overcome any pangs of conscience. Using such biblical parables as “separating the wheat from the chafe,” they assured those operating the so-called “death flights,” in which political prisoners were drugged, stripped naked, bundled onto airplanes and thrown into the sea, that they were doing “God’s work.” Others participated in the torture sessions and tried to use the rite of confession to extract information of use to the torturers.”

Pope_Francis_blog

For over a week, the media has subjected the public to a tidal wave of euphoric banality on the Roman Catholic Church’s selection of a new pope.

This non-stop celebration of the dogma and ritual of an institution that for centuries has been identified with oppression and backwardness is stamped with a deeply undemocratic character. It is reflective of the rightward turn of the entire political establishment and its repudiation of the principles enshrined in the US Constitution, including the wall of separation between church and state. Continue reading »

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OpEds: Questions from a ‘Dirty War’

 AMERICAN STUDIES, ANTI-CORPORATISM, ANTIWAR, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CLASS COLLABORATION, CONSERVATIVES & REACTION, CONTROVERSY, IDEOLOGICAL STRUGGLE, INTERNATIONAL REPORTAGE, LatinAm-ARGENTINA, MEDIA CRITICISM, PLUTOCRATIC POWER, RELIGIOSITY & SUPERSTITION  Comments Off
Mar 152013
 
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Robinson

Robinson

Editor’s Note: Mirabile dictu! It’s not everyday we find gene Robinson playing on our team. Usually he’s your typical liberaloid doing his job on the pages of The WaPo, one of the most insidious papers around (much like the New York Times), both prominent propaganda organs of the neoliberal establishment), or dispensing wishy-washy opinion on MSNBC. But here, he shows he has some brains, and decency. This is clear, succinct and timely piece. We wonder how he got away with it.  —PG

By  

The Washington Post - Published: March 14

They are impolite questions, but they must be asked: What did Jorge Mario Bergoglio know, and when did he know it, about Argentina’s brutal “Dirty War” against suspected leftists, in which thousands were tortured and killed? More important, what did the newly chosen Pope Francis do? Continue reading »

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Bergoglio and the Junta

 ANNOTATED NEWS, ANTI-CORPORATISM, ANTIWAR, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CONSERVATIVES & REACTION, CULTURE & CRITICISM, GREAT HYPOCRISY, LatinAm-ARGENTINA, RELIGIOSITY & SUPERSTITION  Comments Off
Mar 142013
 
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The Demons of Moral Pragmatism and the New Pope

new_pope_Jorge_Mario_Bergoglio

by BINOY KAMPMARK

They were at it again – for the most part the gray brigade of male, in fancy dress (115 in total), deciding the fate on who would be God’s infallible messenger on earth.  More to the point, the candidates, a collective of stalwarts, reactionaries and minor moderates decided to make a decision after only two days, the white smoke signalling their decision.  Those who were favoured had found themselves celebrating mass with swelling congregations. It was a horserace on the divine – and the punters were turning up with their hopes in droves.  Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer of Sao Paolo, Brazil, was one such magnet. Continue reading »

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