The Death Penalty and Christianity

Just think…

If the Roman Empire had banned execution… Christianity wouldn’t exist. After all, it’s based around someone being executed!

Firecrackers vs. Tasers

http://www.shoutwire.com/player/AdotubePlayerLoader.swf?BasePath=http://www.shoutwire.com/player/

Firecrackers are illegal in many states, yet this guy is barely injured and can still walk. Yet Tasers are legal. Go figure.

No room in the -manger-?

CNN reports on a fight between Armenian Christians and Greek Orthodox Christians at the supposed birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem:

“…some of the Orthodox faithful stepped inside the Armenian church’s section, touching off a scuffle between about 50 Greek Orthodox and 30 Armenians…”

I wonder how much room the Armenians would give a poor Jewish mom down on her luck who couldn’t even book a Motel 6 room?

The (mostly Muslim) Palestinian Authority police had to be called in to restore order.

Hate is Love, War is Peace, and Benedict’s full of it

Benedict XVI has posted his message of “peace” on the Vatican website. This is Benedict’s idea of the central way to bring peace on earth:

5. Consequently, whoever, even unknowingly, circumvents the institution of the family undermines peace in the entire community, national and international, since he weakens what is in effect the primary agency of peace. This point merits special reflection: everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman…

Bigotry against gays – just as was practiced in Nazi Germany – will bring peace on earth, at least according to the head of the Catholic Church.

New Orleans: Open for business, closed to people

Sure, they’re getting the businesses rebuilt, but they’re tearing down the four largest neighborhoods and having the New Orleans Thug Department taser and pepper-spray the affected residents.

Can we get our Federal relief money back? I’m tired of business/corporate welfare coming above people.

I’ve sent the following letter to my congresscritter:

========

To the Honorable Christopher H. Smith:

CNN reports this morning at

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/20/neworleans.protests/index.html

about how they’re tearing down four major communities in New Orleans, but the citizenry trying to attend the meeting was assaulted by so-called police officers.

New Orleans is trying to promote an image of “business as usual”, which implies to me that the Federal aid sent down there went primarily to business instead of to people.

I’m tired of corporate/business welfare being handed out by the Federal Government, especially when there are people who want to rebuild their lives – and are not permitted to return to their homes, then blamed for their homes being in disrepair!

Is there any way to put a sanction on Federal aid to the State of Louisiana to recoup the money misspent by that state on attacks of the lower-middle-class?

Stability over freedom

“…He is not a paragon of free speech. He stands, above all, for stability—stability before freedom, stability before choice…”

Sounds like Bush, but the scary part is that Time Magazine is actually describing Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

But Tonantzin Lives

Before the conquistadores came
They knew her
She knew them.

 

Before the blackrobes came
They knew her
She knew them.

 

Before the bishops came
They knew her
She knew them.

 

The land was taken
The people were taken
And the blackrobes thought:

 

‘We have taken her away
She will be theirs no longer
She will not ever Be again
In saecula saeculorum.‘

 

But Tonantzin lives:
Compassion in the heart of the people.
But Tonantzin lives:
Even under the name from the blackrobes.
But Tonantzin lives

 

The Name of Compassion matters not;
Whether Tonantzin or Guadalupe
Kwan Yin, Durga, or Artemis
What matters is the hearts of the people.

 

For do not even the blackrobes
Associate Compassion with Guadalupe
Under the many names she has
In many cultures in the world?

 

“Memorare,
o piisima Virgo Maria,
non esse auditum a saeculo,
quemquam ad tua currentem praesidia,
tua implorantem auxilia,
tua petentem suffragia esse derelicta.“