Friday, October 07, 2011

NO SEX UNLESS YOU STOP WAR! * NOBEL PEACE PRIZE GOES TO THREE WOMEN

In Lysistrata  by Aristophanes. Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end The Peloponnesian War. Lysistrata persuades the women of Greece to withhold sexual gratification from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace — a strategy that, consequently, inflames the battle between the sexes. The play is notable for being an early exposé of sexual politics in a male-dominated society. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysistrata



"This is not a traditional war story," Gbowee, 39, wrote in her autobiography 'Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer and Sex Changed a Nation at War'.
"It is about an army of women in white standing up when no one else would - unafraid because the worst things imaginable had already happened to us. It is about how we found the moral clarity, persistence, and bravery to raise our voices against war and restore sanity to our land."
She shares the 2011 peace prize with her country's president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and another woman peace activist, Yemen's Tawakkul Karman.





Africa's first democratically elected female president, a Liberian campaigner against rape and a woman who stood up to Yemen's autocratic regime won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in recognition of the importance of women's rights in the spread of global peace.
The 10 million kronor ($1.5-million) award was split three ways between Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, women's rights activist Leymah Gbowee from the same African country and democracy activist Tawakkul Karman of Yemen — the first Arab woman to win the prize.
(AP)  OSLO, Norway — Leymah Gbowee confronted armed forces in Liberia to demand that they stop using rape as a weapon. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became Africa's first woman to win a free presidential election. Tawakkul Karman began pushing for change in Yemen long before the Arab Spring. They share a commitment to women's rights in regions where oppression is common, and on Friday they shared the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee honored women for the first time in seven years, and in selecting Karman it also recognized the Arab Spring movement championed by millions of often anonymous activists from Tunisia to Syria.

Prize committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said it would have been difficult to identify all the movement's leaders, and that the committee was making an additional statement by selecting Karman to represent their cause.

"We have included the Arab Spring in this prize, but we have put it in a particular context," Jagland told reporters. "Namely, if one fails to include the women in the revolution and the new democracies, there will be no democracy."

Karman is the first Arab woman ever to win the peace prize, which includes a 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) award that will be divided among the winners. No woman or sub-Saharan African had won the prize since 2004, when the committee honored Wangari Maathai of Kenya, who mobilized poor women to fight deforestation by planting trees.

"I am very, very happy about this prize," said Karman, who has been campaigning for the ouster of Yemen's authoritarian President Ali Abdullah Saleh since 2006. "I give the prize to the youth of revolution in Yemen and the Yemeni people."

Sirleaf, 72, won Liberia's presidential election in 2005 and is credited with helping the country emerge from an especially brutal civil war. She is running for re-election Tuesday in what has been a tough campaign, but Jagland said that did not enter into the committee's decision to honor her.

"This gives me a stronger commitment to work for reconciliation," Sirleaf said Friday from her home in Monrovia, the capital. She said Liberians should be proud that both she and Gbowee were honored.

"Leymah Gbowee worked very hard with women in Liberia from all walks of life to challenge the dictatorship, to sit in the sun and in the rain advocating for peace," Sirleaf said. "I believe we both accept this on behalf of the Liberian people and the credit goes to them."

Gbowee, who took a flight to New York on Friday, said she was shocked to learn she had won.

"Everything I do is an act of survival for myself, for the group of people that I work with," she said. "So if you are surviving, you don't take you survival strategies or tactics as anything worth of a Nobel."

One of the first people she told was a fellow airline passenger.

"Sat by a guy for five hours on the flight and we never spoke to each other, but I had to tap him and say, 'Sir, I just won the Nobel Peace Prize.'"

Gbowee, 39, has long campaigned for the rights of women and against rape, organizing Christian and Muslim women to challenge Liberia's warlords. In 2003, she led hundreds of female protesters — the "women in white" — through Monrovia to demand swift disarmament of fighters who continued to prey on women even though a peace deal ending 14 years of near-constant civil war had been reached months earlier.

"You're supposed to be our liberators, but if you finish everyone, who will you rule?" Gbowee asked rebel official Sekou Fofana during one march that year.

Gbowee was honored by the committee for mobilizing women "across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia, and to ensure women's participation in elections."

Gbowee works in Ghana's capital as the director of Women Peace and Security Network Africa. The group's website says she is a mother of five.

She said that although she had never considered herself worthy of the prize, "women have important roles in peace and security issues and I think that this is an acknowledgment of that."

"The world is functioning on one side of its brain" because women's skills and intelligence are "not being used to advance the cause of the world," she said.

The Harvard-educated Sirleaf took a different path toward change in Liberia, a country created to settle freed American slaves in 1847.

She worked her way through college in the United States by mopping floors and waiting tables. Jailed at home and exiled abroad, she lost to warlord Charles Taylor in elections in 1997 but earned the nickname "Iron Lady." A rebellion forced Taylor from power in 2003, and Sirleaf emerged victorious in a landslide vote in 2005.

Even on a continent long plagued with violence, the civil war in Liberia stood out for its cruelty. Taylor's soldiers ate the hearts of slain enemies and even decorated checkpoints with human entrails.

The conflict had a momentary lull when Taylor ran for office in 1997 and was elected president. Many say they voted for him because they were afraid of the chaos that would follow if he lost.

Though Liberia is more peaceful today, Sirleaf has critics at home who say she hasn't done enough to restore roads, electricity and other infrastructure devastated during the civil strife. Her opponents have accused her of buying votes and using government funds to campaign for re-election, charges that her camp denies.

Liberia's truth and reconciliation commission recommended that she be barred from public office for previously giving up to $10,000 to a rebel group headed by Taylor. Liberia's legislature has not approved that recommendation, and Sirleaf has said that if she should apologize for anything it is for "being fooled" by Taylor in the past.

African and international luminaries welcomed Sirleaf's honor. Many had gathered in Cape Town, South Africa on Friday to celebrate Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday.

"Who? Johnson Sirleaf? The president of Liberia? Oooh," said Tutu, who won the peace prize in 1984 for his nonviolent campaign against white racist rule in South Africa. "She deserves it many times over. She's brought stability to a place that was going to hell."

U2 frontman Bono — who has figured in peace prize speculation in previous years — called Sirleaf an "extraordinary woman, a force of nature and now she has the world recognize her in this great, great, great way."

Karman is a mother of three from Taiz, a city in southern Yemen that is a hotbed of resistance against Saleh's regime. The daughter of a former legal affairs minister under Saleh, she has been dubbed "Iron Woman, "The Mother of Revolution" and "The Spirit of the Yemeni Revolution" by fellow protesters.

Long an advocate for human rights and freedom of expression in Yemen, she mounted an initiative to organize Yemeni youth groups and opposition into a national council.

On Jan. 23, Karman was arrested at her home. After widespread protests against her detention — it is rare for Yemen women to be taken to jail — she was released early the next day.

During a February rally in Sanaa, she told the AP: "We will retain the dignity of the people and their rights by bringing down the regime."

Karman now lives in the capital, Sanaa. She is a journalist and member of the Islamic party Islah and heads the human rights group Women Journalists without Chains.

Jagland noted that Karman, 32, is a member of a political party linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist movement sometimes viewed with suspicion in the West. Jagland, however, called the Brotherhood "an important part" of the Arab Spring.
Yemen's uprising has been one of the least successful so far, failing to unseat Saleh as the country descends into failed state status and armed groups take increasingly central roles.

64 comments:

  1. Interesting......obviously a brave and courageous woman worthy of her prize. She brings about much needed balance to an otherwise hostile environment.

    Hmmmm.......maybe women should rule the world? Then again, when I think of Diane Downs I quickly discard such notions.

    I wholeheartedly agree that every conceivable effort must be made to resolve conflict civilly, however, if everyone could be reasoned with then society wouldn’t need mental institutions; countries wouldn’t need armies; and cops wouldn’t have to carry guns.

    Nevertheless, there will always be war despite the gender of any given person who holds a position of power. Mankind, by nature, is 100% incapable of maintaining peace....period!

    ReplyDelete
  2. In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University
    of Edinborough, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic
    some 2,000 years prior:

    "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a
    permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up
    until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves
    generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the
    majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits
    from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will
    finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by
    a dictatorship."

    "The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the
    beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years,
    these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

    From bondage to spiritual faith;
    From spiritual faith to great courage;
    From courage to liberty;
    From liberty to abundance;
    From abundance to complacency;
    From complacency to apathy;
    From apathy to dependence;
    From dependence back into bondage.
    The Obituary follows:


    Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul
    , Minnesota , points out some interesting facts concerning the last
    Presidential election:

    Number of States won by: Obama: 19 McCain: 29
    Square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000 McCain: 2,427,000
    Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million McCain: 143
    million
    Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Obama: 13.2
    McCain: 2.1

    Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory McCain won
    was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country.

    Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low income
    tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."

    Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the
    "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of
    democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already
    having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

    ReplyDelete
  3. WORFEUS8:52 PM

    "There is an e-mail floating around the internet dealing with the 2008 Obama/McCain election and the 2000 Bush/Gore election, remarks of a Scottish philosopher named Alexander Tyler, etc.

    Part of it is attributed to me. It is entirely BOGUS as to my authorship. "

    Professor Joseph Olson - FACTCHECK.org

    ReplyDelete
  4. WORFEUS8:58 PM

    http://www.factcheck.org/2009/01/unreported-stats/


    ohh..there you go again...Johnny ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanx Worf

    My dad actually sent these figures to me and I was simply astounded......I stand corrected!

    :|

    Also, he recently bought a nice house in Michigan for 17,000 and I still dont believe it. The states are far worse off than I thought.

    ReplyDelete
  6. WORFEUS8:07 PM

    Yes, there are millions of emails being circulated by the right wing, tea party type supporters that are just nothing but complete horse manure. I know, my family constantly bombards me with them too.

    Problem is of course few people if anyone actually takes the time to correct them and when they do, the corrections are seldom circulated with the fervor the lies were.

    And then of course many people post them online like you do, and the false dogma designed to demonize those "evil liberals" is spread even further.

    Email circulations of this sort of nonsense dominates our inboxes these days which is why the tea party still holds so much power.

    The Tea Party and those supportive of tea party and conservative principles today have made excellent use of the strategy of repeating a lie to keep it alive.

    Ironically, George Orwell's "1984" eerily predicted this effective strategy;

    To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed - George Orwell - 1984

    As long as these sorts of emails are propagated endlessly into our inboxes, the majority of Americans will continue believing and spreading the lies demonizing the liberals, and anyone not on board with their right wing end of the world "every man for himself" ideologies.

    They polarize us and they continue widening the divide.

    Sad, but true.

    ReplyDelete
  7. WORFEUS8:36 PM

    Yes, housing prices are astronomically low in many midwestern cities hit hard by the recession of 2007, which is still continuing to this day.

    Unfortunately, the republicans egged on by their tea party constituents aren't going to pass any bills that would in any way improve the economy.

    Because that would help President Obama's chances for reelection.

    And as the republicans have clearly stated their number one goal is not to help the American people, but to keep President Obama from being elected again.

    So, with that goal the only thing they can do, is stonewall and block any efforts by the President or anyone that might have a positive effect on creating jobs and the economy.

    To do otherwise, would be to abandon their stated goal.

    ReplyDelete
  8. WORFEUS8:45 PM

    And as for you my old friend, who routinely posts these circulated falsehoods endlessly in here and God knows where else, if the spreading of this sort of fabricated nonsense troubles you as much as we both know it should, then this age old advice is the best I can offer.


    "Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world."

    -- Thomas Carlyle

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yes,I must agree with you that this is a very dirty trick. It is also an important reminder that one MUST be cautious in what he reads; as a history lover its certainly an embarrassing wake up call for me.

    But, I have not lost sight of the fact that Obama truly inherited a nightmare from the conservatives. As Nixon once said the United States cant go on being the worlds police forever so its time to put down the guns(for awhile anyway) and start taking care of your own....big time!

    As a moderate I must stress that liberals are not evil. They are a vital and necessary part of a political structure that keeps the other sides "every man for himself" policies in check.

    On the other hand, liberals need repubs to prevent the state from becoming to soft - albeit a nation of lazy people who quickly take advantage of other peoples hard work and compassion.

    Its trying to figure out that balance that kills me.

    :|

    ReplyDelete
  10. WORFEUS8:56 AM

    lol, well said, sort of.

    You're like that distant cousin who always shows up around the holidays, who has that amazing ability to give compliments that simultaneously insult the receiver.

    Like "its amazing what you can do with shoestring budget", ....or "this is perhaps the best store bought turkey I've ever tasted", .....or...."you never fail to amaze me how much you can do with off the rack clothes like that".

    My mother had such relatives come to visit often, and the ability has never failed to impress me. Its that whole "Eddie Haskell" charm that works, ...until you think about it for a second or two.

    And you likewise seldom fail to disappoint in that area.

    In one breath you manage to acknowledge the evil of spreading misinformation about the liberals via email and the internet, and in the other you manage to call them "soft", ..."LAZY"..., and shiftless opportunists who take advantage of those "hard working" conservatives.

    Last I checked, liberals have jobs too. FDR was one of the hardest working presidents this country has ever known. And he put America back to work. So did ole "give em hell" Harry Truman.

    On the same note, I can go into any number of right wing "bible belt" communities and visit scores of unemployed households living off food stamps and the good graces of others.

    And as for taking advantage of others? Utah, which is one of the most far right wing states in the United States is also the "SCAM capitol" of the world. A state made famous for the never ending influx of "flim flam" artists who make their fortunes off of bogus elixirs, real estate swindles and dubious magazine ads.

    Yet here comes Johnny, to repeat the oft spread Tea Party lie that conservative values are "hard work" whereas liberals are "lazy opportunists".

    And as always, he does it with a smile, and that impeccable Eddie Haskell charm.....that voodoo that you do so well.

    ohhh Johnny...there you go again.

    ReplyDelete
  11. WORFEUS9:23 AM

    I will say in your half truths however you often manage to touch on the problems confronting us. Yes we need to stop being the worlds police, particularly when so many are worried about money.

    Yet the irony is the same people who cheered on the little war, and lambasted liberals into supporting it, painting those dissenters as "weak" and "unpatriotic" are the sames ones now crying about the government spending too much.

    Its as if they all have some sort of collective Alzheimer's disease.

    Short term memory loss seems to plague the GOP and its Tea Party antagonists. Did they think the several TRILLION we spent on war might perhaps have had an impact on the budget shortfalls they are suddenly so worried about now?

    Yet across the internet we read how its "all Obama's fault", and how he is so much like Hitler, and the "worst president ever". How his policies are ruining this country.

    Ironically, all he's really done is continue many of the policies of the Bush administration, albeit watered down somewhat on some fronts. Yet he's the anti-Christ, while Bush was a great man.

    Go figure.

    As for your being a moderate, you are to be commended for obtaining such a title while simultaneously managing to so thoroughly promote the Tea Party doctrines and demonize the liberals. Half truths and carefully gilded insults are powerful tools in spreading Tea Party doctrines and ideologies, and cementing the perceptions of liberals as the "weak, soft, lazy deadbeats" and the conservatives as those "hard working Americans" we have all had drilled into our brains over the decades.

    Of course, as the old Yiddish proverb so aptly puts it, "a half truth is a whole lie", and we see that its hard to ever get past the "right wing\left wing" polarity that divides us as long as we continue to hear, spread and by into such nonsense, regardless of how carefully gilded it may be.

    ReplyDelete
  12. WORFEUS9:24 AM

    As an independent, what I see are liberals trying to work with conservatives, and conservatives leveraging this sense of fair play on the left to their constant and unending advantage. Its the whole "Lucy Charlie Brown and the football" syndrome that causes the liberals to fall on their butts every time. President Obama wants to work with the right. Of course he wants the democrats to look good. He is one. But he also wants the country to work. He wants jobs back. He wants us to move forward. But the republicans just want HIM to fail. The republicans believe government doesn't work, so they go out of their way at every turn to make it not work. They want it to fail. Programs like medicare struggle not because of any inherent flaw in the concept, but because republicans simply won't fund them adequately. Yet call for a war, and the funds are magically there. Liberals on the other hand do tend to be soft, at least in Congress, but not in the way you paint them. They are soft in that they roll over for the republicans at every turn, always thinking that "this time Lucy's gonna let me kick that football".

    Its more naivety than softness actually. They just don't seem to ever learn. Republicans aren't interested in the people. Their entire core doctrine that "government doesn't work" compels them to make government not work.

    And their innate prejudice and racist upbringings make them despise any sort of government assistance for the people, because they don't want those "lazy blacks" getting any of THEIR precious tax dollars.

    The truth is of course that our Constitutions very preamble states that the role of the government is to "Promote the General Welfare".

    Jefferson himself said that governments main role is to increase the happiness of its citizens.

    But the conservatives want none of that. They want "every man for himself", and they want government to constantly fail. Because if it doesn't fail....if government ever "worked"....then their entire core doctrine would be dismantled overnight.

    So...they continue seeding the lies, mingled with half truths, .....demonizing the liberals and democrats as evil, lazy, shiftless godless fornicating welfare queens, ....and the beat goes on.

    And on, ..and on.


    "The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold." -- Aristotle

    ReplyDelete
  13. "If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision of the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress. ... Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America." --James Madison

    ReplyDelete
  14. "I think we have more machinery of government than is
    necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the
    industrious." --Thomas Jefferson

    ReplyDelete
  15. WORFEUS4:12 PM

    And out tags Tea Party Troll number 1, in tags Tea Party troll number 2.

    Right on cue.


    ...and the beat goes on.

    ReplyDelete
  16. WORFEUS4:19 PM

    "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

    For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

    Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

    Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the LEAST of these, ye did it not to me"


    - Jesus Christ

    ReplyDelete
  17. Well, thank you Worf for considering me like one of the family....Ill be over for one of your almost fresh store boughts this Thanksgiving! And dont forget to make me some of that best tasting packaged gravy :D

    Actually, Hitler, for the most part, put America back to work.

    Of course liberals work as do conservatives but the liberals bleeding heart policy conditions lesser educated members of society to happily live off the handouts of others without repercussions. I see so many of them that I sometimes really wonder how the state survives. Additionally, there are far too many people who are on disability who shouldnt be.

    Useless eaters who contribute nothing but are always sure to have plenty of beer and a little grass close-by at the end of the month; meanwhile their skinny kids are rummaging through the fridge looking for a crumb.

    Just last week a welfare mom of three proudly announced to me that she couldn't pay her rent yet was smoking expensive cigarettes like a champ and drinking beer that her tattooed boyfriend had just bought with the free money.

    Many times I have given unselfishly of myself to those less fortunate;right to the point where my sacrifices were no longer appreciated BUT EXPECTED - and they kept coming back for more and more.

    Therefore, I couldnt have been happier when the provincial conservatives implemented the work for welfare policy. :)

    Simultaneously, it is also absurd, Worf, to suggest that all repubs are evil psychopaths incapable of human compassion as you seem to do.

    Nevertheless, you made some excellent points regarding Obama one of which is worth noting again.

    "Programs like medicare struggle not because of any inherent flaw in the concept, but because republicans simply won't fund them adequately. Yet call for a war, and the funds are magically there."


    This does bother me.

    ReplyDelete
  18. WORFEUS6:27 PM

    "Actually, Hitler, for the most part, put America back to work"

    And there you have it folks. The Tea Party mentality, summed up in a single concise sentence.

    Normal people of course would have many things to say about the man who murdered 6 million Jews, Social Democrats, Russians, Communists, Catholics, and others in the death camps in Nazi occupied territory.

    But not ole Johnny, ...no sir. Like most Tea Party patrons, ....he see's history a little differently than the rest of the planet.

    For them...."Hitler put America back to work".

    Go figure.

    ReplyDelete
  19. WORFEUS6:38 PM

    And no Johnny....FDR had America moving forward well before WWII started. WWII merely accelerated the process.

    As for all republicans being evil psychopaths, never said that. These new Tea Party republicans that now control the GOP however, are another story. We've watched as they tossed dollars on a crippled man and told him to "get a job". We watch as they preach their "I got mine, screw everyone else".

    And we watch as they bemoan the measly, tiny percent of "their tax dollars" that is allocated to charitable organizations, calling the recipients every dirty, foul name under the sun. Just as is printed on this thread.

    Sure there are some who bleed off the system, but any "good" individual would rather see 1000 "undeserving" people get fed for free than one deserving one go hungry.

    And as for "bleeding heart"?

    Another propaganda right wing term...evil in its core as it is designed to take the charity that Christ gave to us, and demonize it by smearing it as something "weak".

    Other than using cutlery, charity is one of the few core principles that separate human beings from animals. And it takes courage to be charitable. It takes strength. And it takes a pumping heart...not a bleeding one.

    The bleeding heart, belongs to the cold, dead hearts of the stingy, selfish, petty tight ass "me generation" that is the Tea Party republican. The "I got mine, screw those lazy dirty poor losers" party.

    The party of Anti-Christ.

    ReplyDelete
  20. WORFEUS6:42 PM

    Jesus said "by their fruits ye shall know them", and we saw the fruits of the Tea Party as they cheered and laughed at the idea of someone without insurance being left to die.

    And we saw their fruits as they applauded and hooped and hollered at the number of human beings slaughtered in Rick Perry's death chambers.

    And we saw their fruits, as they booed and hissed at the idea of giving an education to some poor, innocent children who by no fault of their own were here in this country illegally.

    Yes...the fruits of the Tea Party are all too visible.

    And by their fruits, ...we know them.

    ReplyDelete
  21. WORFEUS6:49 PM

    And yes, you're invited to Thanksgiving dinner.

    As long as you bring the powdered potatoes.

    ReplyDelete
  22. WORFEUS6:58 PM

    Of course, you don't get fed until you've mowed the lawn, washed the family car and cleaned out our gutters.

    After all, we know you folks can't stand seeing anyone fed for free.

    And we want you to feel right at home.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Nice play Worfy,

    Get called on the Constitution, insert Jesus...

    How do you bear it, I mean caring so much more than others? What a noble man you are!

    ReplyDelete
  24. "I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."
    -- Benjamin Franklin

    ReplyDelete
  25. "I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit."
    -- President Grover Cleveland vetoing a bill for charity relief (18 Congressional Record 1875 [1877]

    "I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity. [To approve the measure] would be contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded."
    -- President Franklin Pierce's 1854 veto of a measure to help the mentally ill.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Also Worf,

    A persons relationship with the almighty is between the almighty and that person.

    Government doesn't come into it.

    Unless you've had a change of heart on that church/state thing...

    ReplyDelete
  27. WORFEUS8:12 PM

    Gee, last I checked, the republican Tea Party claims to be the "Party of God". They're the "Christian Party".

    They call for prayer in school, prayer in government, heck Rick Perry, former Tea Party favorite (until they found out he was charitable to those dirty little wetback kids) even held a "prayer rally".

    Of course, he prayed for rain, and God sent him fire instead...but....who's counting?

    George W Bush was even called the "Christian President".

    Yet suddenly...when Christ's words are actually applied...well...then suddenly you're all advocates for the separation clause.

    Go figure.

    ReplyDelete
  28. WORFEUS8:18 PM

    And don't make the mistake that the charity we're talking about here are the handouts Franklin and Jefferson spoke of. The programs being cut and denied by the Tea Party republicans are JOBS programs...training for jobs....infrastructure support for JOBS.

    Because unlike the vile lies being spread by you Teat Party Patriots, ...the fact is most Americans are not for handouts for those who can work. Single mothers, the elderly and disabled, sure. But most programs we're advocating are for JOBS.

    Of course acknowledging that dismantles your entire "weak bleeding heart liberal" propaganda, so ....can't have that.

    Thus,... the beat goes on.

    ReplyDelete
  29. WORFEUS8:19 PM

    And by the way Volty son....when the Tea Party leaves religion out of it, ...so will I.

    Until then...as long as they fight for school prayer, ....teaching creationism in our schools and textbooks, ....prayer rallies for elected officials, ....well......don't like the heat?

    Then stay the hell out of the kitchen.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Worf said

    "And no Johnny....FDR had America moving forward well before WWII started. WWII merely accelerated the process."



    The End of the Great Depression

    "To many at the time, President Roosevelt was a hero. They believed that he cared deeply for the common man and that he was doing his best to end the Great Depression.

    Looking back, however, it is uncertain as to how much Roosevelt's New Deal programs helped to end the Great Depression. By all accounts, the New Deal programs eased the hardships of the Great Depression; however, the U.S. economy was still extremely bad by the end of the 1930s.

    The major turn-around for the U.S. economy occurred after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the entrance of the United States into World War II. Once the U.S. was involved in the war, both people and industry became essential to the war effort.

    Weapons, artillery, ships, and airplanes were needed quickly. Men were trained to become soldiers and the women were kept on the homefront to keep the factories going. Food needed to be grown for both the homefront and to send overseas.

    It was ultimately the entrance of the U.S. into World War II that ended the Great Depression in the United States."


    http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/p/greatdepression.htm

    ReplyDelete
  31. WORFEUS9:40 PM

    Gee, omitting the Banking Holiday, Glass Steagall, the labor initiatives and the steady rise of the economy up until the attack on Pearl Harbor...

    Well, what can you expect from a guy who does nothing but cut and paste information he finds online?

    But one would think he might notice the arguments in his own cut and paste excerpts...


    "By ALL accounts, the New Deal programs eased the hardships of the Great Depression"

    ReplyDelete
  32. WORFEUS9:41 PM

    hmmm,...wonder how many is in an "all"?

    ReplyDelete
  33. Volt said


    "I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."

    Benjamin Franklin



    I couldn't have said it better myself.

    ReplyDelete
  34. WORFEUS9:43 PM

    Yea...and you didn't.

    ReplyDelete
  35. WORFEUS9:47 PM

    And lest we forget, I clearly pointed out that we're talking about jobs, not handouts.

    Course...two deceiving tea party trolls can't address that....cuz....their whole party propaganda line just sort of falls apart then.

    So instead just keep repeating the lie...as if your opponent were actually arguing the position you're falsely attributing to them.


    Makes for easier trolling.

    ReplyDelete
  36. WORFEUS9:49 PM

    Course this isn't an actual debate with you two..or is it one?

    Never is.

    No this is something more like a tag team wrestling match. When one gets smacked, up pops the other.

    Keep back and forthing, changing the subject between two different positions....lie a bit...ignore the responses..lies dismissed...ignore it again...bring back the lies...

    Nope..not much of a debate.

    More like a good game of "Whack-a-mole".

    ReplyDelete
  37. WORFEUS9:50 PM

    ...or is that "Whack-a-Troll"?

    ReplyDelete
  38. Nite Worf

    Im toast. I fell asleep playing X-box.

    BTW, I cant afford to pay for the potato flakes for our turkey dinner.....could you spot me ten bucks?

    And my back is kinda sore,perhaps you could do all those chores for me,after all I know you care.

    I,ll just eat the good food and enjoy the fruits of your labour.

    :D

    ReplyDelete
  39. WORFEUS9:53 PM

    "By ALL accounts, the New Deal programs eased the hardships of the Great Depression"


    ...couldn't have said it better myself.

    ReplyDelete
  40. WORFEUS9:55 PM

    Fortunately I didn't have to.....as my good friend Johnny....said it for me.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Same old argument Worfy,

    You make claims about the Constitution, I call you on it, you switch the conversation to religion, you get called on that, back to the Constitution we go....

    Actually, one of the better Dem presidents said it best:
    "Ask NOT what your country can do for YOU...."

    ReplyDelete
  42. Also, isn't it just a tad hypocritical to whine about the Constitution and then talk about FDR in the same breath?

    After all HE was one of the first to wipe his ass with it.

    ReplyDelete
  43. WORFEUS11:06 PM

    Same old argument is right.

    Republican (Tea Party) is the religious right.

    Republican (Tea Party) claims to be the "Christian Party".

    Republican (Tea Party) tries to implant Evangelical Religious Leaders into government office.

    Republicans is against Mitt Romney because he goes to the "wrong church'.

    Republicans (Tea Party)hold prayer rally.

    Republicans (Tea Party) call liberals "GODLESS", claim they are of God.

    Republicans (Tea Party)wants creationism taught in schools.

    Republicans (Tea Party)say we need Christian values back in government.

    Volty comes in, selling Tea Party propaganda, and someone happens to point out the actual words of Christ.....and suddenly he's all for the separation clause.

    ohhhh Volty....there you go again.

    ReplyDelete
  44. WORFEUS11:09 PM

    And of course lets not forget, Mister Tea Party troll ignores that I never suggested the handouts he falsely accuses me of endorsing.

    As usual, Tea Party pop-up troll just continues pretending that's my position, so that he can more easily argue against it.

    As usual, lies are the only thing he has to support his Tea Party trolling.

    Because the truth just doesn't fit with his agenda.

    ReplyDelete
  45. WORFEUS11:10 PM

    You know Volty mee boy....I think I'm gonna start calling you "Beav".

    Because like the Beaver....whenever Eddie Haskell shows up....

    ReplyDelete
  46. WORFEUS11:10 PM

    .....you're never far behind.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Worf

    Does blogger not allow moving GIFs anymore?

    I download my(valid)gif from photobucket onto the blogger "edit profile page."

    All is well until I save. Afterwards, the gif stops moving???

    Here are my link choices from Photobucket:

    Email & IM

    Direct link

    HTML code

    IMG code

    "The only link that seems to work is "Direct link." The other three say invalid when I try them.

    Would appreciate any help.

    ReplyDelete
  48. The Artist Formerly Known as Worfeus4:52 PM

    Not really sure. Animated Gifs used to work. Its possible it is working for others and not you (might be a local thing with your web browser).

    Try posting it anyway and see if I or anyone else can see the animation.

    ReplyDelete
  49. OK here it is. My old smoking baby gif. Oddly enough if you click on my profile you can see it moving on my audio clip.

    But I did see this note just as I closed the window.

    Exc in ev handl: Error: Bad NPObject as private data!

    ReplyDelete
  50. The Artist Formerly Known as Worfeus6:51 PM

    ok, I see your problem. When you upload the Gif, you need to make sure its saved as a .gif extension.

    Right now its saved as a .png, probably the default.

    Re upload it and this time make sure its saved as a .gif extension.

    ReplyDelete
  51. How do I save it as a gif extension.

    ReplyDelete
  52. The Artist Formerly Known as Worfeus said...8:40 PM

    I don't know. I haven't saved a file up there in a while and I don't have an account anymore. But somewhere there should be a way to make sure that the file is a gif and not a png.

    Also its possible that I'm just seeing the png extension but its actually a gif because I just inspected the element and it says its smoking baby1.gif. But the "width" tag is not set. Maybe the image is too big or something.

    Just make sure its a gif. If it is then I don't know. I don't have a blogger account anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  53. The Artist Formerly Known as Worfeus8:51 PM

    Actually I just googled it and it looks like animated gifs may have an issue with blogger now.


    http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2007/06/animated-gif-files-stopped-working.html

    ReplyDelete
  54. The Artist Formerly Known as Worfeus8:52 PM

    Does look like an issue with it being a png. Seems the solution is to host the gif somewhere and just input the URL.

    ReplyDelete
  55. OK Thanx Worf

    I,ll look into it further when I have a little spare time. How come you dont have a Blogger account?

    I do know that Facebook is like totally super GAY so I can understand you not having an account there.

    ReplyDelete
  56. The Artist Formerly Known as Worfeus10:40 AM

    You always manage to say the politically incorrect, don't you Eddie, ...er I mean Johnny.

    I don't have a blogger account because I don't really blog anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  57. The Artist Formerly Known as Worfeus10:42 AM

    You really need to get that baby on the patch anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  58. The Artist Formerly Known as Worfeus3:58 PM

    Today Obama's strategy in Libya worked again, and chalk up another terrorist leader to the President.

    So long Gaddafi, hello right wing trolls to tell us all how Obama shouldn't get any credit.

    So far Obama's leadership has got the worlds number 1 Terrorist, Osama Bin Laden, (the man Bush couldn't get), ....several Al Quaida high level leaders and now Muammar Gaddafi.

    Yet during the 04 and 08 elections, all we heard was how "tough" republicans like Bush are on terrorism and how weak liberals would be.

    In fact a peruse of the comments in this very blog demonstrate that profusely, as do blogs and online articles across the web. Ann Coulter, Rush Limpballs, Dr Laura, Michelle Bachmann, and all the internet right wing trolls, authors, writers, bloggers, etc.

    All told us how weak democrats are, and how brave and wonderful the republicans are.

    Yet Bush, never got Bin Laden....although he butchered half the middle east and thousands of Americans trying.

    Yet here we see the FIRST democratic President since 911, ....getting Bin Laden, several other top Al Quaida leaders and now with his coalition strategy in Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, the man responsible for 100's of American deaths in acts of terrorism.

    So what do the republican tea bagging trolls do?

    What else?

    Say "nuh uh" and change the subject.

    ReplyDelete
  59. I have to agree with you Worf, it does appear Obama is accomplishing what the conservatives were unable to do. Also,spending trillions on war is insane!

    I kinda feel sorry for the U.S right now and its rough economy. It seems the only place left to work is Wal-Mart. But, who knows, maybe Canada will be the next great super power.

    :D

    ReplyDelete
  60. The Artist Formerly Known as Worfeus11:18 AM

    ...maybe, but you'll have to give up that curling thingy first.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  61. The Artist Formerly Known as Worfeus8:37 PM

    As I predicted, every republican out there including our good friends at "Fox and Friends" just couldn't for one minute show an ounce of class and graciousness for President Obama's strategy in supporting the rebels and getting Gaddafi.

    Not one republican leader showed an ounce of statesmanship. In fact John McCain and several other republicans interviewed on the removal of Gaddafi gave the FRENCH the credit and talked about how it was the FRENCH. These are the same clowns who mocked and ridiculed the French back when the French agreed with the democrats.

    Not one republican shows so much as an ounce of class on this. Just like when Obama got Bin Laden, they all stuck out their bottom lips and frowned and declared how they had their doubts, and refused to give the President the credit he deserved.

    If Bush had gotten Gaddafi, they'd be dancing in the streets. If Bush had gotten Bin Laden, we'd never heard the end of it.

    But Bush didn't get either of them.

    Obama did.

    And these so called "patriots" can't even show an ounce of class for so much as one minute.

    ReplyDelete
  62. The Artist Formerly Known as Worfeus8:44 PM

    Well, congratulations President Obama. The man who murdered all those Americans on PanAm flight 103, murdered US soldiers in a terrorist attack, butchered and oppressed his own people for so many years, has finally paid the piper.

    We never celebrate the death of a human, even one so corrupt as Gaddafi, but it was a necessary thing to do, and you did it.

    Again.

    And you did it without costing one single American life. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Johnnymoomoo said..
    "Actually, Hitler, for the most part, put America back to work."


    The Right Wing has worked tirelessly to push the falsehood that the NEW Deal was a failure and made the Great Depression much worse and that WW2 was what got us out of the Depression.

    The Truth is it is completely riddiculous and ignorant to think that dropping bombs on other countries is what got us out of the Great Depression...........New Deal programs created jobs, built our countries infrastructure, put money in peoples pockets and increased our countries productivity and competitiveness as well as our standard of living for decades............It was when FDR finally listened to Conservatives in 1937 and focused on cutting the deficit rather than creating jobs that unemployment rose again and the economy got worse........it was the massing spending related to the war that helped stimulate the economy NOT bombing other countries if we would have spent an equivalent amount on Solar or Wind initiatives or any other type of infrastructure it would have likely been even more stimulative than the war.

    Conservatives hated the New Deal and tried to assign blame to FDR for the slow recovery and CLAIM the New Deal was a failure and didnt work (just like Conservatives today CLAIM the stimulus that kept the economy from imploding and saved millions of jobs at GM, Chrysler etc didnt work and was a failure)...............They have tried to repeal the New Deal for the last 80 years and when Reagan was elected they started repealing and chipping away at the New Deal Safety nets and we have seen am unprecedented corresponding drop in the incomes and standard of living for the working class which comprise 98% of America,.............

    ReplyDelete
  64. Thanks Mike for ACCURATELY correcting Moo Moo's misinformation.

    BTW, hi worf and lydia.

    ReplyDelete