New Betty Bowers Video (and makes fun of both Christians & Muslims!)

WONDERFUL!
I am so sick of all the Christian bashing and making fun of by so many, while refusing to do the same about other religions and characteristics of their followers. Thank God for this video, it's about time we get over some of our taboos and this tolerance for intolerance.
EXCELLENT in all manners other than... just the above...

-WHAT YOU CAN DO-

This has to be a heavily researched and laid out section, on tips on what you can do and how you can be active (but don't think I'm not already rather nicely personally well armed.) Because it's not that great to just complain about things unless you take action as well.

I intend to lay out here things such as reading material to really bash that Christianity if that's what you're into (because most of you are probably not really as knowledgeable as you need to be to be doing it, but with a surprisingly minor amount of reading you can be incredibly beyond most any Christian in the reality of the basis of their dogma)....And because frankly I'm sick and tired of all the Christianity-bashing going around (at least in my circles) while refusing to bash other religions as well (at least in my circles.)

Also practical material such as...
Proper etiquette of addressing HM King Abudullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud in letter form, with mailing address, when taking action against something such as say....75 yr old woman sentenced to 40 lashes and four months jail time for intermingling with two men not related who came to deliver her bread and should not have stepped inside her house (true story - look/see/google)
Of which the The Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women has provided us with...
http://stop-stoning.org/node/686
And I would strongly adhere to their suggested etiquette and mannerism if/when actually writing this individual, but that's just me.
(If anyone can let me know if the Arabic news sources managed to gloss this sentencing over:
http://www.elaph.com/Web/ElaphGulf/2009/8/475464.htm
....I'd be fascinated.)

and other things I can come up with because I feel that that's now where I would like to focus direction in the 'RELIGION' section...
.....about all manner of such related things going on against others in the world in the name of religion, and what we can actually do about it rather than simply feeling upset and outraged. And this tolerance for the intolerance has got to somehow stop.

spiritualized banking comes to Europe

http://www.thelocal.de/money/20100119-24663.html?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=112

Two Words:
MANIFEST DESTINY
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This may be an old news item now but still a wonderful piece I came upon, and actually I don't see the issue itself in general going away any time soon.....

Life (and death) for homosexuals in some of the Islamic Countries

Now I realize when Sam Harris says anything like some of the things I do he gets applauded, and when I do I'm a RACIST; so with that understanding in mind I'll just say anything I damn well want. 

The stuff going on in Iraq - while and when we actually are there and really working to stop this kind of stuff and prevent it from continuing  - and to my understanding we are not in this area of influence and help there.... I have even read one article which talks about U.S. military guys helping Iraqis round up gays (link soon as I backtrack and find.)
....updated on Jan 25, 2010 - the further I look I find some good things to say about the U.S. military addressing this issue in Iraq:

http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t57195.html


It gets so horrifying.....their favorite method of torture-death for gay guys is to cement their anus closed, then administer drugs which cause diarrhea - this is apparently an incredibly excruciating death:

From CNN: http://bit.ly/80iRvF

Another source on the torture form of killing: http://bit.ly/6wOiEG

http://www.towleroad.com/2009/04/report-iraqi-militia-killing-gay-men-with-painful-form-of-anal-torture.html
Lots here:
http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com/


Man why do they have to be so fucking BRUTAL and NASTY, can't they just put a gun to their heads?  And these people are so fucking vehemently religious?! And don't even try and tell me this stuff doesn't all come down to some supposed religious purposes in at least some ways, because they use that excuse for everything themselves.(Meaning Yes I blame Islam too, it's out of their own heads and mouths when they want it to be and I believe it.)

This is the horror of the reality of when an entire culture is somehow stuck back in the middle ages. (among other horrors)
And yes I know that of course most all of these people would not be supportive of at least some of these elements, but the fact is this stuff is as rampant as it is in their culture, these are hardly isolated incidents - and the majority are not exactly real supportive in opposition here either.
(please think well and clearly on the aforementioned point)
So yes I am indeed going to put just a little of the blame on the good Muslims too.

I also have ZERO TOLERANCE for religious 'moderates' and religious 'liberals', which could easily be in itself a topic of its own though it should be spelled out in this writing well enough.

 ...and again, I'm sorry but no I DON'T have to have Tolerance for your religious beliefs.

And neither do I discriminate in any way based on looks or race.
But this selective tolerance for selective intolerance has got to stop.
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The Pope of the East

The West's infatuation with Buddhism.....I would tend to agree that Buddhism is probably the best large scale 'organized religion' in existence for a great variety of reasoning.
But I find it so quaint how Americans universally have this belief that Himalayan/Tibetan Buddhism - is like some kind of epitomical pinnacle of Buddhism.

I seriously doubt any of these people who consider Himalayan Tantric Buddhism to be so advanced, have read much about it, as if they were to they'd find it the most backwards form of Buddhism, like left back in the middle ages (or earlier) being one good way to put it...full of monsters and demons and all sorts of fun stuff.
Like a supreme Pope though not only spiritual but also political leader - His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who's current incarnation was born under special signs indicating he is indeed the reincarnation of the last Dalai Lama - reigns incarnate as the other most holy man in the world besides that one whom who sits in Rome whom it's fashionable here for the cool people to hate.
This one, when not out being worshiped and giving his 'peace' talks geared specifically to whichever group he may be speaking to at the venue, sits in his spiritualist/political headquarters in Dharamasala, India part of the time, and has also been now made an honorary citizen of the city of Paris http://bit.ly/4S9HiW

I love the way his anti-homosexual stance is so carefully kept from the West and Americans. Which of whom here, are the type of American who would go for this shit and also be likely pretty pro-gay. So we have a potential problem here. Now when asked directly (which I'm sure they try and avoid the subject at all costs when here in the West) he is of course of the loving ideology that 'homosexuals should be loved, yes' (the man's no fool) - but sorry there is still a zero-tolerance policy for anyone actually acting upon such desires. And heterosexuals, you are not on any kind of path to Nirvana, being butterflies, or whatever spiritual thing you have going in your head, if you're engaging in oral sex, by the way.
Yes I'm sorry to say, but in some....actually a great - many ways, Eastern spirituality really becomes quite rather more constricting than we all thought it was, once you actually bother looking into it.
(So it's good that none of the people over here really bother much, a trait not unlike the Christians with their dogmatic beliefs.)

Now in the name of book sales and maximizing popularity, His Holiness' books published in the U.S. are censored of the anti-homosexuality 'teachings', which the Dalai Lama, though believing and preaching this dogma himself as a core part of necessary human behavior, actually acquiesces to his American Publishers for their reasons and goes right ahead and removes these things - so Americans are actually getting a watered down censored version of the true ultimate Buddhism and important lessons the Dalai Lama has for mankind. I think this is really beautifully poignant.
Now I would have more...WAY MORE respect for the man if he refused to acquiesce to his U.S. publishers, but that he does actually go ahead and preach a watered down and false doctrine in the name of higher book sales and increased popularity in the West, I find particularly disgusting.

This stuff is all out there and you'd think anyone who was actually into this shit would be finding it in this day of information age where there's just little excuse here, I'm sorry.
I published this article on my FB page recently with a sarcastic note about how much I loved the Dalai Lama: http://bit.ly/5Sl3fJ
and indeed how cute was it that it got some thumbs up from some fellow Americans.....whom I later asked, did you read that? Did you realize that was a sarcastic joke on my part? Of course they did not. They were just all thumbs up for the "Dalai Lama"  ...Even I am stunned, by the lack of.......something major within the minds of the majority of the populace, some of my own friends included.

I want to detail a cute little conversation I had with a newly met FB friend who is so in love with Spiritualism (in his own words I improvise not)
.......he wrote me an introductory email of hello.
I wrote him:
I noticed in your Twitter you follow and are followed by the Dalai Lama.
You should read the article when you have a chance, [http://bit.ly/5Sl3fJ] I posted link to on my page recently. And let me know.

He wrote back: .......But I do follow the Dalai Lama, I love how his meditations move you to such great places :) I love spirituality, not organized religions or anything, just universal spirituality..

My return: I take it from your response that you didn't read the article on the Dalai Lama I mentioned to you and was curious on your opinion of.

His return: Love the Dalai Lama lots also,.....

My answer to that: "Love the Dalai Lama lots also, "
...I actually can't stand the Dalai Lama and all the stuff over and around him. You seem to have totally missed what I was communicating in both my mails.

...and that was the last I heard from that cuddly bunny.

.....And that, an example of the knowledge and attempts at any kind of knowledge, by an American, about anything - be they a born again Christian or an Eastern Spiritualist - there seems to be something rational lacking somewhere, am I wrong?

-update-
I showed this page to that FB person whom I attempted to get the opinion of a gay male follower of the Dalai Lama which would have been quite interesting.
So his reaction to seeing the above was about what I expected.
-This page is full of erroneous information - but when I ask him for an example of that he is unable to come up with anything.
-I am in need spiritual guidance. I asked him for suggestions but did not get anything back on that one either.
-A fascinating ascertain that I do not understand polytheism. This would indeed probably explain a lot, I most certainly concur.

update February 2, 2010
A reply I wrote to a correspondent re: The Dalai'Man
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I really appreciated your thoughts and observations on Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai'Man.
And you make such a good point and I wish more people realized this - He has not come to all this stuff on his own. His wise sayings and peace philosophies and such - he has had a life time of learning, these philosophies and the ways of writing them out and the latter probably comes from very western influences.
I get the feeling that people both in the east and west, so in need for a higher entity to look up to, as it was ingrained deeply in our genetics during our evolution when we evolved our religious thought processes for necessary coping mechanisms, understandably at the time though now not only no longer needed but detrimental - that people are want to give him credit for all these things very personally without the realization of how much he has learned all this stuff and how to present it from others and a life time of the position he'd been sat in.
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HINDUISM

I believe it started largely in the 1950s and 1960s, Americans and I would suppose Europeans as well....went into craze for Eastern Spirituality.....the Beatniks were into it, the Beatles fired it; it became a pop thing in the 1990s really with highly publicized pilgrimage-like trips by the likes of Richard Gere to the Himalayas.

I wonder what it is that makes Americans believe those Indians and Himalayan peoples have such a right-on knack for spiritualism? (It certainly doesn't seem to be helping them much in my opinion, but I guess we are focusing on lives that come sometime later after this one....Forget not living in the moment, don't even live in the lifetime....but well that does depend upon which caste you are born in really when you get down to it.)

I suppose it was part of the 60s feel-good self-help need and mentality that select facets of Eastern Spirituality served a special place and purpose.

So we have very actively in this day, a great conception that India is just this incredibly beautifully positively spiritual place and culture, the height of it all in many ways. I know many people who's dream it is to make pilgrimage like trips to India. I want someone to really explain to me what it is they think they're going to find there and get out of this on a spiritual level, because when I ask them they really don't have anything very concrete that they can come up with.


Here's some lovey dovey reality about Hinduism for you, http://bit.ly/4IZrNm, and animal treatment and sacrifice by the hundreds of thousands in a mere one day religious fest; Because "The goddess needs blood."
Sounds like quite the enlightening experience. And but also they (the people not the animals, assuming) get all their dreams and desires fulfilled within five years for partaking in this. (And so the obvious question is, do they all just continue asking for the same lifestyle they've always had at each and every one of these?)

 ...and again, I'm sorry but no I DON'T have to have tolerance for your religious beliefs.

And another thing which should be understood by Westerners is that of the good old 'caste system' which though technically illegal, is still alive and well in India today. National Geographic did a stunningly revealing episode on the horrors of this inhumanity which are a normal part of contemporary Indian society to this day, in an issue about six years ago.

India is considered by many to be one of the most anti-gay and homophobic country in the entire world. Amazingly their parliament legalized homosexual contact this last year in 2009. But don't think that's done a lot to change the popular view of the populace.
And as far as Hinduism is concerned....major Hindu groups groups like Sri Ram Sena and Sri Shiv Sena would never accept the gays’ rights, as they immediately officially proclaimed.

Gandhi, one of those universal obligatory love bunnies we must all revere...completely said amazingly little against the caste system all things considered; because it was so intertwined with Hinduism. So much for one of the supposed greatest all timers of human rights. He did have some nice things to say about African blacks being akin to the "untouchables" lowest 'caste' of human being, wow now there's some food for thought and re-consideration of the values of this so incredibly 'spiritual' of cultures.
Religion actually equals idiocy, and thus making sense that India is also considered the most religious country in the world, right along with its prevalent humananity-horror of the caste system flourishing alive and well today.

CHRISTIAN AGENDAS and ECONOMOIC CRISIS

****************************************************************** Since I come from very conservative Right wing Christian parents I have a very keen insight into the thinking of these people.....the way Christianity is being used for financial and cultural control and gain, etc. I don't think the majority of people even here in the U.S. understand the magnitude of what is going on and that there exist actual highly intrinsic motivations for the Right's forcing this country into Christianity. The tendency with liberal minded people is usually at least some level of pacifism and a 'live and let live' attitude prevails. An intrinsic characteristic of the Right is to go out and fight for and take what they want, and in whatever manner they possibly can. The left wing tending people are generally of an open minded nature and will not always agree with one another because they will choose and act upon that which they truly feel is right. The Right in their quest for ultimate power will stick together on everything there is no room for individual opinion. Remember, it's "Either you're with us - or against us." - there's no problem admitting there is absolutely no room even amongst themselves for anything other than the ultimate authority which must be followed unquestionably. Thus the differences in attitudes and actions of the two mindsets make for a detrimental situation which is largely why we are where we are today. The U.S. is rife with culture war as never before. Right versus Left, the economic factions more disgustingly greedful than ever before, and Christianity deeply intertwined into this political mess used for political and economic control, as it has been for millennia but astonishingly continues into the present day even albeit the level of education and knowledge we have reached, and this should not be. This effect is actually on the increase dramatically in the United States. For the Right to hold on to everything they can, and take more, they need people to work and behave as they dictate and can control. This is a wonderful way in which religion comes into play. Coming from a deeply religious Right wing conservative family situation I am acutely aware of the thinking at work in the agendas of the Right. For example the thinking of my father as influenced by his factions that even as a very middle class economic wage earner, taxes should be lowered on the rich and labour unions are terribly detrimental as people are being paid too much, socialism is outright evil and sinful as "God didn't make us this way." For a capitalism to be successful you need a large body of the public with significant spending money. This squeezing the public out of everything they possibly can now by the corporations and businessmen, the drive to maximize profits in absolutely any and every way possible - without care or thought to the future ramifications of this, they are actually shooting themselves in the foot because they are going to run out of people with the spending money to keep giving them. It's already happened and thus the economic crisis at hand. The massive gas price increase which occurred several years ago for absolutely no real reason but to suddenly milk the U.S. public as meganomically as possible by the oil companies as they realized they could do it, so why not? And I believe it was this which triggered the economic collapse, this ON TOP OF the "sub-prime mortgage" business practices. I don't think all those people really couldn't afford their mortgages, right in those same amount of recent years.....it was the jacking up of costs of everything else and largely gasoline which really affected people living just within their means; also affecting the costs of everything which is bought by these people and shipped to the stores via gas powered vehicles. That fascinating spike in gas prices we had for a couple years which so coincidentally occurred when the sub-prime mortgages were all given...actually the timing makes light of the oil/gas prices as being the catalyst for the sub-prime mortgage people to simultaneously be unable to afford their house payments.  Suddenly people's spending money was no longer available for supporting other forms of business as it had to go into their gas tanks, this especially effecting the middle and lower classes. The cost of transporting goods and foods to the stores became more expensive; the massive sudden raise in gasoline price had a drastic domino effect. And curiously, right after the economic collapse occurred, which had of course been building for years but suddenly struck within a very short amount of time, the oil companies dropped their gas prices down to incredibly lower prices. Did the oil companies realize their several years of megalomaniacal profit making had actually had a catastrophic effect on the U.S. economy? I've yet to hear this theory voiced in the media and I'm not sure why not. The profit motives of the corporations and rich which are bigger than ever before also take no account of long term effects on the environment. Such as the incredible agenda of keeping fossil fuels the primary energy source in the U.S. These people have so much money how could it hurt them to start directing some of it into establishing solar power for our future generations? Jimmy Carter had solar panels installed on the White House roof, Ronald Regan had them removed when he moved in. It's actually largely just about what basically amounts to a 'good old boys club' of people in the oil industry and those with ties to them, which decides the fate of a future time when the catastrophic effects of pollution will be too late to reverse and we could have been working on implementing a solar energy system all along so it'd be there when we finally REALLY need it. But not when this could threaten these people's profit maximization, that is truly the highest order of all things and it's no joke. I find fascinating irony in the fact that these factions are also so obsessively based in their Christianity which is very specific about helping out mankind. (Not to mention that good old adage that a rich man has as much chance of getting into heaven as a camel through the eye of a needle - But you see the way their religion works is that they choose what to believe and what not to believe from their religion based on THEIR needs and wants at any given time or situation. It's the hallmark of Christianity.) And for the current economic business model in the U.S. - any decrease in profits, in fact if profits are not multiplied each year after year - amounts to failure in their minds no matter how rich they still are. An example which I am going to take the time and space here to actually write out because it is such a beautiful example of the ruthless corporate sqeezing of middle and lower class America: Bank of America makes so much money on overdraft fees that they've now implemented schemes to maximize this income which will blow your mind. This example I have personally: My roommate's checking account was overdrawn recently, and in addition to the huge overdraft fees per item, they have implemented a new additional fee of $30.00 if the account remains overdrawn for three days. And as hard as this is to believe, when he deposited money into this account they then put a hold on these new funds due to another new complimentary scheming rule that funds, even when drawn upon their own very bank and literally now present in the account, must be held for a certain time period when deposited into an overdrawn account. Thus ensuring even MORE overdraft items and fees even AFTER the customer has actually funded their account, and then in addition ensuring they get that new additional $30.00 fee for remaining more than three days overdrawn. THE AUDACITY of a company (and one which provides a service the public has little choice of living without) SQUEEZING the U.S. public like this and at a time when people are in such economic crisis and struggling as they are?! - How do they expect a successful capitalism to flourish with the fleecing of their public to these degrees and even at times of dire financial struggle for people?! And again my warning, their hyper-greed is effectively shooting themselves in the foot in the long run. However.....If a future does not exist then attention to future ramifications is of little necessity. And here we have a very fascinatingly uncanny connection tying directly into the issue of Christianity being so intrinsically intertwined within the Right. The Christian masses believe 'the rapture' will be coming along before the peril of environmental collapse and other economic detriment etc will destroy their lives. As difficult as this rationalization is to believe happening, again I personally have an inside into the ideology and thinking of the average American who is on the side of the Right due to my personal familial connections, and it has also been pointed out by social scientists that a fairly accurate estimation of the number of U.S. citizens believing 'the rapture' is coming amounts to around 44% of the population. Yes it becomes clear there are indeed a number of intrinsic benefits the Right has for enforcing a society of 'Christian Values'. In Arianna Huffington's book "Pigs At The Trough" she writes after having consulted with clinical psychologists, on the phenomena of thinking and behaviour which exists rampantly amongst the Right wing political and business mongers that is actually identical to psychosis. Points such as lack of remorse, lack of concern for impacts against others by their actions, and future detrimental ramifications. There is also this assertion that they know the will of god and are following it with their actions. It has come out of the mouths of George W. Bush, Mike Huckabee, my own father for examples, along with many others, some in dangerously high places of power. To declare to know the will of god is not only heretical but another symptom of psychosis. Yet the majority of these people are actually not mentally ill, so this is truly a fascinating phenomena. I personally believe it is their extreme greed which has overtaken and altered their thinking structure, changed facets in their mind radically from those of a normal human individual. The fact that their bizarre version of reality IS REALITY unquestionably and absolute. It is fascinating to learn of George Bush senior's connections and friendship with the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, a billionaire who commands incredible legions of followers as he claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. This man also disturbingly owns the Washington Times. How could such a godly Christian as George Bush associate with such a heretic, and especially as Christianity and its values are such an integral part of the Right, its values so core and intrinsic to our leaders? This would seemingly make no sense. But Bush shows up at Moon's events from time to time as documented. And as it turns out the Reverend Moon has contributed vast amounts of money to Right wing factions and likely funded the majority of the cost of Bush senior's Presidential library. So apparently money, trumps even the all important religious values. Similarly how Mormons are embraced by the Right wing club though their beliefs are heretical to say the least, this seems to be of no concern to our Christian concerned leaders and foundations, as long as they have money and are on the Republican side. Money trumps all for them and I don't have to do or say much in convincing anyone there. A terrible fear obsessing the Christian conservative is the power of influential forces. And a major one being that of swinging their children into homosexuality. If their Christian lifestyle is so strong and righteous, how can it be that one of their children could even turn out as a homosexual? That should not even be possible. The incredible obsession the Right has with homosexuality trumps even things like our own people not having enough food on the table and medical care. This subject is bizarrely the biggest controversy raging in the culture war and U.S. climate today. I will make counter-points in my blog to their accusations of homosexuality being unnatural for the reasons which they give, it is not only highly natural but very beneficial for our species in a variety of ways, and points on how flawed and damaging the Christian lifestyle is in contrast. Change is among the most vile enemy of those who wish to hold on to everything they can (whilst taking as much more as possible.) Things which do not fit within the values the factions have their set up living control system dictating, enforced largely via Christianity, are thus a tremendous threat to their power structure and methodology. A point I would like to make regarding the current mega-controversy raging in the U.S. over same-sex marriage: Aside from the ridiculous points that it threatens heterosexual marriage, which if such a stable thing should have no such threat to it at all, not to mention such divorce rates. How can Christians who claim so much sanctity and sacredness about marriage have such a high divorce rate? This should not be. As far as their obsession with trying to prevent same-sex marriage at absolutely any cost, you'd think their very livelihoods and the world depended upon this? And the point on their obsession with restricting homosexual activities and marriage etc I would like to make - Is Hell Not Enough For Us? Remember we are headed there in the end but you want to fuck with us as much as possible in THIS life too? This insistence  that everyone MUST live as you believe. Is Hell Not Enough?