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Galloping from Far Asia and jutting out
into the Mediterranean like a mare's head
this country is ours.
Wrists in blood, teeth clenched, feet bare
and this soil spreading like a silk carpet,
this hell, this paradise is ours.
Shut the gates of plutocracy, don't let them open again,
annihilate man's servitude to man,
this invitation is ours.
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To live
like a tree
single and at liberty
and
brotherly
like the trees of a forest,
this yearning is ours
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Nazim Hikmet
Let him among you who is without sin be the first to send a stone at her.
John 8:7
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Once again, an alleged representative of God, (the Almighty and All Merciful), a Brazilian Archbishop of the Catholic Church, neither almighty nor merciful, Cardoso by name and overwhelmed with knowledge of the Ways of the One, has decreed and excommunicated a nine year old girl, because she had an abortion.
She became pregnant after her stepfather had raped her. The frail and delicate preteen girl could have died otherwise in giving birth.
The depth of the Archbishop's heart and wisdom also revealed to him the necessity of excommunicating the team of doctors who performed the abortion.
But of course, as always, a very young dead girl is preferable to the all male, supposedly chaste and sexless leaders of the Catholic Church, when even a life saving abortion is the issue.
Shame on you, Cardoso!
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It is reported that the Archbishop of the Catholic Church of Brazil, Archbishop Cardoso, has excommunicated a young girl of nine years of age. Apparently she had been raped by her stepfather.
The sin seems to be that a team of doctors and medical staff - who have all also been excommunicated - performed an abortion. The doctors believed the procedure necessary for medical (and no doubt humanitarian) reasons such as her health, and the likelihood of a pregnancy at that age affecting her badly, possibly fatally - and that the foetus had little chance of survival. This seems a reasonable assumption.
All in all a remarkable act by a person with the control of the church of a large country. This would seem to imply that young children and even babies can be
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guilty of terrible sins, in the eyes of the Catholic Church, even when these are forced on them by adults. It also implies that the Bishop is hardly fit to govern a kindergarden, let alone a very large congregation.
As a representative of the Almighty and All-Merciful, he seems to have fallen short in his duties somewhat. Or is it the position of the Church that a dead child is a better result than a terminated foetus that had little real chance of survival? It also seems to approve of raping children as a means of creating more Catholics.
One supposes it far too much to hope for that the Bishop will himself be excommunicated by the Pope.
by Tom Badillo
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Let the children come to me,
and do not keep them away,
for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
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 Unprecedented View Inside the Prison-like Conditions at
High-Tech Sweatshop in China
Producing for HP, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft and IBM
Today, the National Labor Committee (NLC) is releasing a 60-page report, High Tech Misery in China, documenting the grueling hours, low wages and draconian disciplinary measures at the Meitai factory in southern China. The 2,000 mostly-young women workers produce keyboards and other equipment for Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft and IBM. Along with worker interviews, photographs of primitive factory and dorm conditions and extensive internal company documents were smuggled out of the factory.
Full report: http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=613
- Workers sit on hard wooden stools as 500 computer keyboards an hour move down the assembly line, 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with just two days off a month. The workers have 1.1 seconds to snap on each key, an operation repeated 3,250 times an hour, 35,750 a day, 250,250 a week and over one million times a month. The pace is relentless.
- Workers are paid 1/50th of a cent for each operation they complete.
- Workers cannot talk, listen to music or even lift their heads to look around. They must "periodically trim their nails," or be fined. Workers needing to use the bathroom must learn to hold it until there is a break. Security guards spy on the workers, who are prohibited from putting their hands in their pockets and are searched when they leave the factory.
- All overtime is mandatory and workers are at the factory up to 87 hours a week, while earning a take-home wage of just 41 cents an hour. Workers are being cheated of up to 19 percent of the wages due them.
- Ten to twelve workers share each overcrowded dorm room, sleeping on metal bunk beds and draping old sheets over their cubicles for privacy. Workers bathe using small plastic buckets and must walk down several flights of stairs to fetch hot water.
- Workers are locked in the factory compound four days a week and prohibited from even taking a walk.
- For breakfast the workers receive a thin rice gruel. On Fridays they receive a small chicken leg and foot to symbolize "their improving life."
- Workers are instructed to "love the company like your home"…"continuously striving for perfection" …and to spy on and "actively monitor each other."
China provides large subsidies to its exporters. In 2008, the U.S. trade deficit with China in advanced technology products is expected to reach $74 billion. There are 1.4 million electronic assembly jobs left in the U.S.-paying $12.72 to $14.41 an hour-which may be lost due to China's low wages and repression of worker rights.
One Metai worker summed up the general feeling in the factory: "I feel like I am serving a prison sentence...The factory is forever pressing down on our heads and will not tolerate even the tiniest mistake. When working, we work continuously. When we eat, we have to eat with lightning speed… The security guards are like policemen watching over prisoners. We're really livestock and shouldn't be called workers."
God help us if the labor-management relations being developed in China become the new low standard for the rest of the world. The $200 personal computer and $22.99 keyboard may seem like a great bargain. But they come at a terrible cost. The low wages and lack of worker rights protections in China are leading the race to the bottom in the global sweatshop economy, where there are no winners.
THE NATIONAL
LABORCOMMITTEE
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"If sharks were men," Mr. Keuner was asked by his landlady's little girl, "would they be nicer to the little fishes?"
"Certainly," he said. "If sharks were men, they would build enormous boxes in the ocean for the little fish, with all kinds of food inside, both vegetable and animal. They would take care that the boxes always had fresh water, and in general they would make all kinds of sanitary arrangements. If, for example, a little fish were to injure a fin, it would immediately be bandaged, so that it would not die and be lost to the sharks before its time. So that the little fish would not become melancholy, there would be big water festivals from time to time; because cheerful fish taste better than melancholy ones.
"There would, of course, also be schools in the big boxes. In these schools the little fish would learn how to swim into the sharks' jaws. They would need to know geography, for example, so that they could find the big sharks, who lie idly around somewhere. The principal subject would, of course, be the moral education of the little fish. They would be taught that it would be the best and most beautiful thing in the world if a little fish sacrificed itself cheerfully and that they all had to believe the sharks, especially when the latter said they were providing for a beautiful future. The little fish would be taught that this future is assured only if they learned obedience. The little fish had to beware of all base, materialist, egotistical and Marxist inclinations, and if one of their number betrayed such inclinations they had to report it to the sharks immediately.
"If sharks were men, they would, of course, also wage wars against one another, in order to conquer other fish boxes and other little fish. The wars would be waged by their own little fish. They would teach their little fish that there was an enormous difference between themselves and the little fish belonging to the other sharks. Little fish, they would announce,
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are well known to be mute, but they are silent in quite different languages and hence find it impossible to understand one another. Each little fish that, in a war, killed a couple of other little fish, enemy ones, silent in their own language, would have a little order made of seaweed pinned to it and be awarded the title of hero.
"If sharks were men, there would, of course, also be art. There would be beautiful pictures, in which the sharks' teeth would be portrayed in magnificent colors and their jaws as pure pleasure gardens, in which one could romp about splendidly. The theaters at the bottom of the sea would show heroic little fish swimming enthusiastically into the jaws of sharks, and the music would be so beautiful that to the accompaniment of its sounds, the orchestra leading the way, the little fish would stream dreamily into the sharks' jaws, lulled by the most agreeable thoughts.
"There would also be a religion, if sharks were men. It would preach that little fish only really begin to live properly in the sharks' stomachs.
"Furthermore, if sharks were men there would be an end to all little fish being equal, as is the case now. Some would be given important offices and be placed above the others. Those who were a little bigger would even be allowed to eat up the smaller ones. That would be altogether agreeable for the sharks, since they themselves would more often get bigger bites to eat. And the bigger little fish, occupying their posts, would ensure order among the little fish, become teachers, officers, engineers in box construction, etc.
"In short, if sharks were men, they would for the first time bring culture to the ocean."
Bertolt Brecht
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Rolf Verleger, former chairman of the Jewish Community in Schleswig-Holstein (a German Federal State), criticizes the 'all too simple' comments of German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Israel's recent military action against the Palestinian people. To hold only Hamas responsible does not reflect the very complex historical development of the situation. He asks four questions:
- None of his Grandparents survived the Nazi Holocaust. Did this fact give Jewish franctireurs and the Jewish Army in 1947/48 the right to expel hundreds of thousands of Arabs from Israel?
- The German Nazis expropriated the property of his Great-Grandfather in Berlin. Did this fact give the state of Israel the right to confiscate the property of the expelled Arabs?
- All his uncles and aunts were murdered by the SS. Does this fact give the state of Israel the right to exercise a dictatorial occupation for the last 40 years over the Palestinian people?
- His Grandma Hannah was shot, because she went to her hair-dresser without wearing the "Judenstern" ( a yellow star to mark Jewish People. It had to be put visibly on the clothes). Does this fact give the State of Israel the right to starve and bombard the people in Gaza?
"In general terms", he asks, "does the fact that the European Jews were the victim of a great wrong, give the state of Israel the right, before God and humanity, to wrong others? This is the real question. And here, Mrs. Merkel is oversimplifying. Israel is not always right."
He also compares the blockade of Gaza with the blockade of Sarajevo in 1990, and adds, "the leaders who did that then were punished as war criminals in The Hague."
"Judaism once was 'the religion of acting charity'. When I say that today, no one is going to believe me."
(Excerpt of an interview given on Deutschlandfunk, 12/29, 2008)
See also:
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A man is driving home one night from working late at the office. As he crosses a bridge out of the city, approaching the middle of the bridge, he sees a man standing on the edge, outside the safety barrier.
Smith is a religious man and a firm believer in doing right. He wonders if he can help; and he knows that he should try to save this man in distress. So he stops his car, and walks back to the fellow, who looks as if he is about to make the leap.
"Hello, my friend", says Smith as he gets to around three metres away from the jumper and stops. "You must be in terrible distress. Perhaps I can help you?" he says warmly.
"Keep back!" shouts the man. "You can't help me! It's too bad! It's too late!"
"My friend, I see you are in pain. But sometimes another can help. Tell me, are you a believer? In times like these, our chosen faith can often show us the way and provide comfort. Do you follow any faith my friend?"
"I can't tell you, I'm ashamed to be here", sobbed the man.
"Well", Smith replied, "The Koran tells us that we should not take our own lives, and we should place our trust in Allah. Are you a Muslim my friend?"
And as he speaks, he edges a little closer.
"No, that isn't my religion", the man sobs.
"Ah, the Torah tells us we should not take our own lives, and we should put our trust in others and the will of the Almighty. Are you of the Jewish faith my friend?"
"No, no, that isn't my church!" is the sad reply.
"Hmm, the Bible tells us we should not take our own lives, and we should trust in God and pray for guidance", Smith tried.
"Yes, I'm a Christian", the man sobbed.
"Well, that is great news!" Smith exclaimed from the heart. "So am I. Perhaps we can pray together, to ask for guidance in these hard times. Will you pray with me, my friend?"
"It won't do any good but if you insist!" the fellow cried back. "It's too late, it's much too late!"
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"Well, my friend, I understand your pain, but God can heal all. Let us pray together."
So Smith recited a short prayer and toward the end, the other joined in and they prayed together.
"Well, my friend, I feel better, how about you?" joked Smith. "Tell me, what denomination do you belong to?" he enquired, and moved in a little.
"I'm a Protestant" said the man with difficulty, racked by sobs.
"That is good, my friend, very good - so am I" said Smith. "And tell me - what branch of the Protestant faith do you belong to?"
"I'm a Third-Day Salvationist actually" replied the man, who looked as if he was doing better.
"Good Lord! That's amazing! So am I", replied Smith, a wide smile on his face. "Let us ask the Lord together for guidance today", and they both observed silence for a few seconds, heads bowed.
Smith moved forward gently, a warm smile on his face as he recognised a brother who needed help. He was within arm's reach at last. The poor fellow had relaxed a little by now.
"Now tell me, I am with the First Convention Church - what is your Church my friend? Is it yours by chance?" asked Smith.
"No, no, I am with Pastor Jones of the First Day Tabernacle", the man replied.
"You are - what?" said Smith. "With - who?" he stuttered, his countenance changing.
His face changed suddenly into a mask of hate. He lunged forward, screaming "Die you heretic bastard!" and pushed the man off the bridge.
Many thanks to a3.cp 
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 Make a Right onto Believeth Blvd.
Keep straight and go through the Green Light, which is Jesus Christ.
There, you must turn onto the Bridge of Faith, which is over troubled water.
When you get off the bridge, make a Right turn and Keep Straight.
You are on the King's Highway - Heaven-bound.
Keep going for three miles: One for the Father, One for the Son, and
One for the Holy Ghost.
Then exit off onto Grace Blvd.
From there, make a Right turn on Gospel Lane.
Keep Straight and then make another Right on Prayer Road.
As you go on your way, Yield Not to the traffic on Temptation Ave.
Also, avoid SIN STREET because it is a DEAD END.
Pass up Envy Drive, and Hate Avenue.
Also, pass Hypocrisy Street, Gossiping Lane, and Backbiting Blvd.
However, you have to go down Long-suffering Lane, Persecution Blvd.
And Trials and Tribulations Ave.
But that's all right, because VICTORY Street is straight ahead!
AMEN!
Life is God's gift to you.
The way you live it............is your gift to God.
Received from a friend 
Thanks very much jb.
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"...did any of your students ever become enlightened?"
