1.) Swamp Fox - 09/06/2013

[B]I Surf The Swamp So You Don't Have To...[/B]


Every once in a while, when I think I'm properly medicated and my head won't explode, I spend a little time reading some lefty blogs and e-commentary. I skip over the same-old-same-old, which is just tiresome and irritating on top of disagreeable, so a bad combination.

Forward.

[url]http://www.mstarz.com/articles/6052/20121029/obama-forward-slogan-changed-communist-controversy-backlash-photo.htm[/url]

[url]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2137378/Obamas-new-campaign-slogan-Forward.html[/url]

[url]http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/08/02/grammar-geeks-throw-a-fit-over-obamas-forward-slogan/[/url]


:wink


So anyhoo, some of the stuff I land on is pretty out there, but that should be expected since these are the kind of people who are very down with WTF...I mean [I]Winning The Future[/I]. :re: They're all pretty pissed at Barry Obama, though. Too white-bread for them. Up there with GW, Reagan and Nixon on their waste-o'-space meter, which goes to show you how slogans only get you so far forward, even if you are the coolest president ever.


This article speaks for itself. I’m saving another for later. :wink



[I]An Open Letter to President Obama Regarding Syria----by Maria Rodale, Sept 4, 2013
[Full text here: [url]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maria-rodale/an-open-letter-to-preside_b_3865116.html][/url]



…I do not consider myself a Christian, but I would like to quote Jesus and ask, "Who among you has not sinned?" Yes, Syria has undoubtedly used chemical weapons on its own people. Maybe it was the government; maybe it was the opposition; maybe you know for sure. But here's what I know for sure: We are no better. We have been using chemical weapons on our own children -- and ourselves -- for decades, the chemical weapons we use in agriculture to win the war on pests, weeds, and the false need for ever greater yields. While the effects of these "legal" chemical weapons might not be immediate and direct, they are no less deadly. And you, Mr. President, have had an unprecedented opportunity to stop it, but you haven't. You haven't. In fact, you have encouraged it. And I am supremely disappointed in that.

What got me thinking about this was one of those Facebook posts where there is a picture of you, Mr. President, talking to a child in a classroom. It's an adorable picture because I know you genuinely care for children, and it shows. But the bubble coming out of your mouth says, "We are going to war with Syria because they poison their children" which is met with a little girl's words, "So why don't you bomb Monsanto, you prick." Harsh, I know. Perhaps unfair. I know you probably don't hang out on Facebook much, but it's getting a lot of "shares" among my friends. Yes, even my liberal friends. I laughed when I first saw it. But the more I think about it, the angrier I get.

We've been trying to tell you for years that chemical companies like Monsanto, Syngenta, Dow, DuPont, Bayer Crops Sciences, and others are poisoning our children and our environment with your support and even, it seems, your encouragement. Just because their bodies aren't lined up wrapped in sheets on the front pages of the newspapers around the world doesn't mean it's not true. Perhaps you're surrounded by advisors who are keeping the truth from you. But I know many people who have spoken to you about this directly, and you seem not to understand or listen.

Is it about the money? Because if so, war will cost you more. Is it about food security? Because if so, you are destroying it. Is it about needing enough corn to make gasoline to reduce our dependence on foreign oil? Because if so, you are destroying our water, our soil, and our children's future in the process. Is it about your lack of knowledge? Because if so, I'd be happy to come and explain it to you in a way that you can understand. As the CEO of the world's leading health-and-wellness publisher and the granddaughter of the founder of the organic movement in America, I am uniquely qualified to explain it to you. And if I haven't understood your reluctance to protect our children, then I truly do want to hear from you and listen to your perspective.

You are a smart man. You are not up for reelection. This is your big chance to make the right choice and take the right road, the road less traveled. This is your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to leave a lasting legacy of peace and healing rather than more destruction. Syria and its refugees definitely need our help, though I am certain that a violent military strike will not provide the results you are looking for. Both our children and Syria's deserve the chance to grow up free from chemical contamination and warfare. But that hope takes a different sort of action and courage, one that does not come with missiles and guns, drones, and destruction..

Our mutual hero Bruce Springsteen sings, "We Take Care of Our Own." I believe we can take care of our own, as well as restore the world's faith in American democracy, by acting with peace, compassion, and nonviolence -- both at home and around the world.
I so want to continue to believe in you. I do. But I need you to do the hardest thing a man in your position can do: turn away from aggression and war and toward love and healing, turn away from foreign complicated and false "heroics" and take care of your own children at home. Then, you can also redefine what it means to be a real hero and a truly great president…[/I]

2.) DParker - 09/06/2013

I sprayed RoundUp on some weeds in the spot where I grow my peppers. So when my family eats my homemade chili it's just like me pumping sarin gas into the house while they're inside.

That's the kind of evil person you turn out to be when you lack heroes like Bruce Springsteen.

3.) Swamp Fox - 09/06/2013

LOL...

I wanted to edit the quote down, but almost every line is so illustrative. I knew I had to include at least up to the point of Springsteen hero-worship and the Obama-luv:"I so want to continue to believe in you. I do. But I need you to..."

4.) bluecat - 09/06/2013

[QUOTE=DParker;10421]I sprayed RoundUp on some weeds in the spot where I grow my peppers. So when my family eats my homemade chili it's just like me pumping sarin gas into the house while they're inside.

That's the kind of evil person you turn out to be when you lack heroes like Bruce Springsteen.[/QUOTE]

Did you have a well-planned surgical strike on the different species of weeds or did you just strafe the whole area?

5.) Ventilator - 09/06/2013

I need to strafe my sidewalk....hunting season is getting in the way again tho.:re:

6.) DParker - 09/06/2013

[QUOTE=bluecat;10423]Did you have a well-planned surgical strike on the different species of weeds or did you just strafe the whole area?[/QUOTE]

I carpet bomb. You can't beat a scorched earth policy.

I love the smell of glyphosate in the morning. It smells like.....victory.

7.) Swamp Fox - 09/06/2013

[QUOTE=Swamp Fox;10422]LOL...

I wanted to edit the quote down, but almost every line is so illustrative..."[/QUOTE]


Let's start with the first line of the quote, since I'm on a writing tear today...


"I do not consider myself a Christian, but I would like to quote Jesus and ask, "Who among you has not sinned?" writes Ms. Rodale.


Not a good start.

I don't consider myself a progressive statist, but I quote FDR once in a while.

I don't consider myself a British imperialist, but I quote Churchill once in a while.

I don't consider myself a 1860's-style federalist, but I quote Lincoln once in a while.

I don't consider myself a doctor of philosophy, but I quote Plato, Socrates and Aristotle once in a while.

I don't consider myself a Confucian, but I quote Confucius once in a while...


:wink


The calculated falling-over-backwards to separate herself from "Christians" is really a hoot. Maybe it would make her feel better to know that the idea that no one is perfect predates Christianity by at least several thousand years. (See example below.)

I'm sure she could find a philosophy or ethical system in the history of mankind which recognizes this stunning concept that she could also feel was respectable, maybe even be comfortable with.

Secondly, though not less importantly, I don't consider myself a Bible scholar but I don't believe "Who among you has not sinned?" is any sort of a quote of Jesus, nor even a sloppy rephrase. Not only doesn't Ms. Rodale consider herself a Christian, I'm hoping she doesn't consider herself a fact- (or reality!-) based writer.

I find no evidence that Jesus ever asked, "Who among you has not sinned?" Of course, maybe he did and it's just that no one bothered to write it down or pass it on... There's the quote from Proverbs, of course, dating back more than five hundred years before Jesus walked the earth: "Who can say: My heart is clean, I am pure from sin?" (Proverbs 20:9) but Ms. Rodale would have a difficult time explaining how that is a quote of Jesus, or even a "Christian" quote, given the fact that neither time travel nor Christianity had been invented yet back then.

I believe the quote Ms. Rodale is reaching for is some form of the much-different exclamation (which [I]is[/I] attributed to Jesus) found in this Gospel passage: "When therefore they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said to them: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." (John 8:7)

If someone has a Jesus quote that really IS close to "Who among you has not sinned", I'll send him a pack of broadheads (his choice). As I said, I'm not a Bible scholar. But if you can argue convincingly that either Bible quote above (or any Bible quote?) indicates we could overlook or even go easy on chemical warfare and the killing of innocents, or that we could sanely equate it to killing bugs and weeds, I'll eat one of my hats (my choice).

Remember, in the story, we are talking about the authorities being more concerned with tripping Jesus up and trapping him between two competing legal codes (Mosaic vs. Roman) than they were interested in justice, and the woman accused of adultery was a mere extra in the political theater to them. If Jesus said she should not be stoned, he would appear in violation of Jewish law, which called for this harsh (capital) punishment for that crime. On the other hand, if Jesus called for her stoning, he would be in violation of Roman law, which reserved to the Romans exclusively the power and legal right to put someone to death.

By calling for the man without sin to cast the first stone, Jesus sent his would-be tormentors slinking away.

This is the account: "Then Jesus lifting up himself, said to her: Woman, where are they that accused thee? Hath no man condemned thee? Who said: No man, Lord. And Jesus said: Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more." (John 8: 10-11)

Jesus is talking about the law here, and its requirements for legitimate formal accusation, and who may or may not mete out what kind of justice, etc. Obviously he is not telling the woman she did not sin. If she didn't sin, or it is "no big deal", why command her to "Sin no more"? Basically, Jesus did not take the Pharisee's bait, and instead turned their trap upon them. How anybody with half a brain takes this story and turns it into an excuse for bad behavior and worse is beyond me, to say nothing of using it to draw insane moral equivalencies. The best you can say is that it all starts with profound ignorance.

If you're interested or don't believe any of this, there are plenty of good, solid explanations out there of the historical, legal and theological background and meaning of the "cast the first stone" story. It's information Ms. Rodale could have found in just a few minutes on the internet if she weren't so wound up about non-organic farming. Of course, it's a shame she didn't understand the story in the first place, at her age.

As it is, she didn't take the time or apparently doesn't have the research skills---nor, it's safe to say, the cultural background--- to make a cogent argument about sin, evil or what a civil leader should do when faced with one or the other...or both.

8.) DParker - 09/06/2013

Reader's Digest condensed version for the TL;DR crowd:

"She's an illiterate dumbass."

9.) Swamp Fox - 09/06/2013

You're being charitable....:wink

The irony is, she's in the publishing business. Runs magazines. Writes on HuffPo...LOL

10.) bluecat - 09/07/2013

[QUOTE=DParker;10426]I carpet bomb. You can't beat a scorched earth policy.

I love the smell of glyphosate in the morning. It smells like.....victory.[/QUOTE]

Good man, it's the only way to be sure.

11.) bluecat - 09/07/2013

Swampy, I have an autographed copy of the bible if you need it for your quotes.

I really want to try out those stainless steel snuffers. God is okay with fishing and hunting. Well at least fishing.

12.) crookedeye - 09/07/2013

what was that all about?? was swampy drinking or somthing??

13.) bluecat - 09/07/2013

Swampy gets like that sometimes. He mixes his meds with sweet tea.

14.) crookedeye - 09/07/2013

he knows he should'nt do that..that sweat tea will cause havoc with his blood sugar level..

15.) bluecat - 09/07/2013

He's not a spring chicken anymore either. He needs to take care of himself. I'm a little worried.

16.) Swamp Fox - 09/07/2013

You're only as old as the woman you feel, LOL....Which makes me age Zero...Good to have my life all in front of me.....:tap:


I'm pretty sure God is cool with hunting, Nimrod notwithstanding.

But I mean, like, who really nos all this stuff anyway?

17.) Swamp Fox - 09/07/2013

[QUOTE=crookedeye;10438]what was that all about?? was swampy drinking or somthing??[/QUOTE]



Just wait for my next masterpiece about an ALF raid on a fur farm...Defended and justified by a Canadian sociology grad student....


:pop:

18.) Hunter - 09/07/2013

This stuff is too complicated for morning reading!

19.) Floyd - 09/07/2013

Oxymoronic

20.) bluecat - 09/07/2013

[QUOTE=Floyd;10456]Oxymoronic[/QUOTE]

That stuff really cleans your clothes.

21.) DParker - 09/07/2013

[QUOTE=bluecat;10457]That stuff really cleans your clothes.[/QUOTE]



Just don't snort it.

22.) Swamp Fox - 09/09/2013

[QUOTE=bluecat;10437]Swampy, I have an autographed copy of the bible if you need it for your quotes.

QUOTE]

Thanks, but I've already got one. :wink

It's the Illustrated Barack Obama Edition (Kumbaya Press, revised 2013)...The one with the chickens coming home to roost on the cover.

23.) Swamp Fox - 09/09/2013

[QUOTE=bluecat;10437]Swampy, I have an autographed copy of the bible if you need it for your quotes.

[/QUOTE]

Thanks, but I've already got one. :wink

It's the New Illustrated Barack Obama Edition (Kumbaya Press, revised 2013)....The one with the picture of the chickens coming home to roost on the cover.

24.) bluecat - 09/09/2013

:laugh:

25.) Swamp Fox - 09/09/2013

Since there's no good arguments to get into around here any more, I'm forced to argue alone.

At least I'm not arguing with myself.:wink

Here's how it might go when Swamp Fox meets Alf...um....when I meet an animal liberation activist...

The original article is at the link. My running commentary is below in red. Sorry I missed the Dallas Cowboys thread.. I coulda argued there....:grin:


[url]http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/09/04/alf-action-in-ontario/[/url]


++++++


[COLOR="#FF0000"]Point/Counterpoint:

Adam, you ignorant slut...[/COLOR]

Unsurprisingly, there has been little coverage of the action in the mainstream Ontario media, what little local reportage there has been highlighting the concerns of the Canadian fur industry, which has of recent been attempting a ‘rebranding’ with such innocuous slogans as “fur is green” and “in harmony with nature.”

[COLOR="#FF0000"]As opposed to the slogans "Fur is Dead" and "Meat is Murder". Which are right out there. Okey dokey, then. [/COLOR]

The owner of the farm has referred all inquires to the Canadian Fur Council, which was not hesitant to employ its own political appraisal of the animal activists. CFC spokesperson Nancy Daigneault had this to say about the action: “It’s a nuisance and an act of extremism that strikes fear into the heart of any farmer. And it’s a criminal act. It creates a lot of stress for the farmer because it’s an attack on his livelihood. It’s terrorism. They are terrorizing the farmer. That’s what they are doing.” According to Daigneault, the raising of animals for the sole purpose of slaughter for fashion is not in any way terrorizing.

[COLOR="#FF0000"]That's because she understands the raising of animals for the sole purpose of slaughter for fashion is not equivalent to terrorizing[/COLOR].

The CFC, ostensibly equating animals advocates with the ilk of pesky Palestinians who refuse to roll over and die to make room for the culmination of the Zionist colonial project, are trotting out that ever-helpful signifier, ‘terrorists.’

[COLOR="#FF0000"]Actually, the CFC is equating them with suicide bombers, gunmen, thugs and hooligans. Unless all Palestinian nationalists are terrorists, Adam? In any event, you seem rather fond of the ones who are. It's also interesting that you seem irritated by "Zionists", but it's not unexpected.[/COLOR]

One wonders if this is only to prove that this tired trope’s incessant reiteration and gelatinous parameters never cease to penetrate into the utterly idiotic. Or, maybe it’s to prove that even when it does, a sufficiently indoctrinated public will simply tilt its head back and swallow the nonsense like warm (soy) milk before a good night’s sleep.

[COLOR="#FF0000"]Or maybe one wonders if it's just that the truth hurts. Soy milk, eh? Of course. Opiate of the masses. Makes the tired trope of "colonialism" go down better, for one thing, even if that ancient chestnut does have gelatinous parameters...or something.. For my next illusion, I will attempt to penetrate something with a gelatinous mystery goo...Can I have a volunteer from the audience? [/COLOR]

Either way, by any stretch of the imagination, activists ‘illegally’ freeing captive animals from a certain and brutal death is not ‘terrorism.’

[COLOR="#FF0000"]Maybe it's not. Maybe it is. Many people don't think you have to do bodily violence to earn the label "terrorist." The United Nations General Assembly (!) and the FBI would be two organizations of that persuasion. Considering that interesting range and ALF's actions in the past, I don't think apologists are in a position to quibble or play semantics. [COLOR="#FF0000"]See this link:[/COLOR] [COLOR="#FF0000"][url]http://www.targetofopportunity.com/alf.htm[/url][/COLOR]

And freeing captive animals: Is it illegal, or is it not, if they are not your animals? Since it is, you can lose the quotation marks. We understand you think you are on a higher plane than the rest of us. But you're just embarrassing yourself now. Don't make it worse by trying to argue that animals are not property. 'Cause I know you wanna go there at this point.[/COLOR]

Extrapolating from Daigneault’s calibration, any violation of the law in pursuance of potentially higher moral standards is, indisputably, an act of terrorism. This is a curious logic to contemplate on the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech at The March on Washington.

[COLOR="#FF0000"]No, this is not curious. It's utter nonsense. I understand you are a Piled Higher and Deeper student, but it's a good thing it's not in Logic. [/COLOR]

The moral thing to do would have been to acquiesce in the face of Bull Connor’s fire hoses and billy clubs, or so we’re led to believe.

[COLOR="#FF0000"](I see at this point that equating things that are "not like the other" is quite a problem for Adam. I thought there was a test on this kind of stuff pretty early on in grade school. Maybe kindergarten.)

Adam, I know it makes you feel good to compare second-class blacks and textbook civil rights workers who marched in the open and withstood beatings and murder to your friends who sneak around at night in their ski masks and skinny-jeans letting bunnies out of their cages, but I don't think it's gonna fly.[/COLOR]

Daigneault further utilized the well-worn red herring of ‘domestication,’ claiming that the ALF did the animals no service, as these creatures who are ‘reliant on humans for survival’ will most likely turn up as road kill, or succumb to some other fate apparently less dignified than winding up as some moron’s over-priced jacket.

[COLOR="#FF0000"]Ooh! The dreaded red herring. No one expects the red herring! Pretty sure you don't understand what a red herring is, Adam, but am somewhat impressed you know how to use it in a sentence. Especially considering the "not like the other" failures. Unfortunately, roadkill and coyote food is exactly how most of these animals will wind up. Now THIS is curious logic: Release the animals because you don't want them killed for fur, knowing they will be killed for meat...or for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mega pats on the back all around for that stroke of brilliance, bra![/COLOR]

One could not possibly be so foolish as to think that the ALF does not realize that ‘mass domestication’ is itself part of the issue. The ‘production’ of domesticated animals on a mass scale, whether for fur or food, creates the issue of animal dependence on humans.

[COLOR="#FF0000"]Oooh! Oooh! ... Talk about your red herrings! [/COLOR]

If one were to take the CFC’s business ‘philosophy’ seriously, the raising of animals for no other purpose but to be slaughtered in pre-adolescence for a barbaric ‘fashion’ industry is a morally superior existence to having never existed at all.

[COLOR="#FF0000"]Not sure where you getting that, Adam. "Morally superior"? "Having never existed at all"? Not sure I want to try to figure out how to connect all the pretty dots you've got going on to get to that state of enlightenment... Not sure at all.[/COLOR]

While similar direct actions are comparatively rare in Canada, the AFL ended its statement by claiming that “We won’t stop until this and all fur farms are empty.” Here’s hoping.

[COLOR="#FF0000"]Beers to you, Adam! Good luck in school. [/COLOR]

26.) bluecat - 09/09/2013

This should just about sum it up.

27.) DParker - 09/09/2013

[QUOTE=Swamp Fox;10503]Since there's no good arguments to get into around here any more, I'm forced to argue alone.[/QUOTE]

I'm sorry, but I'm not allowed to argue unless you've paid.

28.) bluecat - 09/09/2013

I wouldn't mind an argument about now. But I want it unbelievably short, very limited, very targeted.

I'll start, you stink.

29.) Floyd - 09/09/2013

Bluecat, please refrain from bulling stinky people. I'm sure HC inforcement will be along shortly.

30.) Swamp Fox - 09/09/2013

Great moments in Alf History:


(Lucky the Cat has died, and the Tanners are having a funeral for him.):

ALF: I'm reminded of a prayer he used to recite every night before going to bed: "And if I die before I wake, chicken-fry me like a steak."

ALF: Where I'm from, this is ludicrous! It's like having a funeral for a hamburger!