Richard Offline

Hello Readers. I am stepping out ever so briefly to pass on some news to the blog readers. I post these messages to Richard's blog for him. In case you have been wondering about the reduction in number of posting lately, see the message below - sent by his dear wife AdaMaria through the Yahoo Group. If you would, please send healing energy and love Richard's way. I have edited out a small bit of the note to preserve privacy. - Heidi, yr friendly blog post service

August 29, 2006

Dear Friends,

I am writing to let everyone know that Richard will be off-line for a while. He fell last Friday and broke his leg. He had surgery this past Saturday and is still in the hospital. He has been in a lot of pain with this and so please send your love and good healing energy for him. ...

Thank you in advance for your love and healing energy for my sweet boy.

Love, AdaMaria

Report on 9/11

9/ 11 Conspiracy Theorists Thriving
By JUSTIN POPE

Kevin Barrett believes the U.S government might have destroyed the World Trade Center. Steven Jones is researching what he calls evidence that the twin towers were brought down by explosives detonated inside them, not by hijacked airliners.

These men aren't uneducated junk scientists: Barrett will teach a class on Islam at the University of Wisconsin this fall, over the protests of more than 60 state legislators. Jones is a tenured physicist at Brigham Young University whose mainstream academic job has made him a hero to conspiracy theorists.

Five years after the terrorist attacks, a community that believes widely discredited ideas about what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, persists and even thrives. Members trade their ideas on the Internet and in self-published papers and in books. About 500 of them attended a recent conference in Chicago.

The movement claims to be drawing fresh energy and credibility from a recently formed group called Scholars for 9/11 Truth.

The organization says publicity over Barrett's case has helped boost membership to about 75 academics. They are a tiny minority of the 1 million part- and full-time faculty nationwide, and some have no university affiliation. Most aren't experts in relevant fields. But some are well educated, with degrees from elite universities such as Princeton and Stanford and jobs at schools including Rice, Indiana and the University of Texas.

Read the whole article

(Thanks to Mick Gallagher)

Condemn Mass Dog Slaughter In China

Chinese officials brutally killed 50,000 dogs as part of a crackdown on a rabies outbreak.

Urge China to adopt widespread rabies prevention and vaccination before this happens again!

I am shocked and deeply disturbed. I recently found out that officials in a southwestern Chinese county brutally slaughtered 50,000 dogs in a government-ordered crackdown after three people died of rabies. Tell the US Ambassador to condemn this animal cruelty and prevent more from occuring.

This was not humane euthanasia. Dogs being walked were seized from their owners and beaten to death on the spot. Killing teams also entered villages at night creating noise to get dogs barking, and then beat the animals to death.

What's worse, the slaughter was completely preventable. Had the government been more attentive and proactive about rabies vaccination, rabies would not have become a problem in the first place. Only 3 percent of dogs are vaccinated against rabies and more than 2,000 people die of the disease each year.

Take Action.

Regardless of cultural differences, the brutal killing of innocent life, human or not, is unacceptable. This must not happen again in the future! It is essential that the Chinese government place an emphasis on widespread rabies vaccinations to protect human health and prevent the unnecessary loss of animal life.

Sign this petition calling on the US Ambassador to China, Clark T. Randt, to urge the Chinese government to adopt a rabies prevention program that protects animals from the disease and inhumane crackdowns if outbreaks occur: http://go.care2.com/e/LZt/Oo/E.ri

Thank you for making a difference today!

Agata Gussmann,
Care2 and ThePetitionSite Team

More Amaggeddonist Nutcases

'Dual Covenant' Christians
Christian Zionists and the strangest alliance in history
by Jon Basil Utley

The major internal conflict for the strangest alliance in history is about what will happen to Jews who don't convert to evangelical Christianity. The Armageddonites, those 30 million Americans who happily see Mideast chaos as hastening their one-way trip to paradise, are being increasingly questioned about the fate of Jews whom they urge to help fulfill the prophecies.

Once their death wish agenda is realized, the end-of-the-worlders believe that Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims (of course), other Christians (apparently including Catholics and Orthodox), and all the rest of humanity will be killed. But the born-again will be "raptured" to Heaven. (See "The Brutal Christ of the Armageddonites.")

Now some enterprising Texans have "resolved" the big question. The Jews God kills will go to a parallel heaven, "their" kind of heaven, to enjoy eternity alongside the good Christians. The Jewish heaven will presumably be what "they" would like, perhaps different from the evangelical heaven, where there will be "no booze, no bars, and no need to mow the grass on one's lawn," according to a popular Gaither Singers song. (The fact that the Jewish faith has no afterlife at all similar to the Christian one is irrelevant, nor do the faithful Texans probably even know it.) It is called the "dual covenant theory" – the belief that Jews and Christians have separate deals with God. However, Muslims, Hindus, and others have no deal.

A Wall Street Journal piece described the dual covenant theory in an article about a Christian Zionist meeting in Washington two weeks ago. In particular it reported on Rev. John Hagee, who founded Christians United for Israel and organized the event. Now, Jerry Falwell and other evangelicals who once opposed the thesis have joined the Hagee group board of directors. They urge no peace concessions by Israel and, now, war with Iran.

The 3,500 delegates held a major rally in Washington attended by, among others, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), Senators Sam Brownback (R-Kans.) and Rick Santorum (R-Penn.), Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., and other leading Zionists. As the Journal reports, "They see, and even sometimes seem to embrace, the notion of a global conflict between Islam and the Judeo-Christian West, just as do many zealous Muslims." (Protesters outside the meeting were led by Carol Moore, who long ago first brought media attention to the Waco and Weaver travesties.)

Interestingly, polls indicate that most Americans are nowhere near as pro-Israel as their elected representatives. Recent polls show strong majorities of Americans do not want the U.S. to intervene on Israel's behalf in its current military campaign.

There are many other strange facets to the Zionist-Evangelical alliance:

* God needs Jews to gather in Israel for the fulfillment of His plans. To further this, the Christian Zionists collect money (from churchgoers and on TV programs) to pay for primarily Russian Jews to emigrate to Israel, because God can't end the world until most Jews have returned to the holy land. However, American Jews apparently can stay in America without hindering His agenda.
* The great advantage of being "raptured" is that there is no Judgment Day. Everybody who is "born again" automatically goes to Heaven, their sins all forgiven, and no good works are necessary. But it must happen soon. If John Hagee, Jerry Falwell, or Pat Robertson should die before Armageddon happens, then God will handle their souls the ordinary way.
* God loves the Jews, according to fundamentalist theology, but not if they work for peace. Pat Robertson explained that murdered Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin was killed because he got in the way of God's plans for continued war. Robertson also blamed Ariel Sharon's recent stroke on his withdrawal from Gaza. Similarly, according to the Wall Street Journal, Hagee said that "calls for Israel to show restraint violate 'God's foreign policy statement' toward Jews." In May, 2003 Hagee and other evangelical leaders sent a letter to President Bush applauding the invasion of Iraq but complaining about the Israel-Palestine peace plan. They said it would be "morally reprehensible" for the U.S. to be "evenhanded."
* Hardly any leader of the Christian Right publicly opposes the torture of prisoners of war (with the notable exception of Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship). Perhaps predictably, many fundamentalists are passionate supporters of John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, noted for symbolizing all that the rest of the world dislikes about America. Just war, rule of law, the Geneva Convention, charity to one's enemies – such concepts are all anathema to these Christians who long for the end of the world.
* Millions of Arab Christians are certainly not loved by the God of the Armageddonites. In fact, Arab Christians don't seem to exist. Pat Robertson's 700 Club, for instance, refused to show a segment about Christian Arabs. Jerry Falwell's tours of Israel purposely avoided them, according to Grace Halsell, who traveled with Falwell's group and wrote a book about it. Robert Novak has written about the plight of Christians under Israeli rule and how almost no representative in Congress dares to speak up for them, except for Henry Hyde, who is retiring. The self-proclaimed "Christian" columnists and commentators on Fox News and the Washington Times op-ed page remain silent.

The White House has explained the nuances of God's plans to Armageddonites before. Last year, it sponsored a meeting with leading fundamentalist preachers to explain that Gaza was not part of the historical Judea and Samaria. Therefore, its spokesman argued, Israel's withdrawal of settlements would not interfere with God's plan to end the world.

It is a bit weird that we begin the 21st century with American foreign policy being made by religious fundamentalists who mirror some of their Muslim brethren in their hatred. And now they want to attack Iran, whatever the consequences for the world's oil supplies through the Straits of Hormuz. Never mind all the wisdom and experience, books and lectures of America's foreign policy establishment: State Department and CIA experts overseas, analysts at think tanks, the most brilliant thinkers in the nation might as well be whistling in the dark. George Bush has been asked if he believes that we are in the "end times." He refused to answer. He has said that God tells him what policies to pursue, presumably those now inflaming the Muslim world. Catholics and most other Christians, incidentally, do not believe the Armageddonites' scenario. Others believe God's prophecies already occurred in Biblical times.

And the preachers? Just in case the world does not end soon, Rev.Hagee has set aside several million dollars in trusts, money earned from his prophecies and preaching. The San Antonio Express News reported on the IRS filings of his Global Evangelism Television network. After their report, Hagee re-registered the fundraising network as a church, which does not need to show its IRS filings.

One Million Blessings

This is beautiful!

One Million Blessings

Peace Day September 21

Peace Day - September 21 - The International Day of Peace - 25th Annual Observance!

The United Nations' International Day of Peace (Peace Day) is a highlight of the Culture of Peace Initiative. Peace Day is a unique opportunity to bring attention to the millions of little and big things that individuals and organizations around the world are doing all year long to make this world a better place. September 21, 2006 will be the 25th annual Peace Day observance! This year, events and activities include concerts, parades, marches, fasts, conferences, festivals, gatherings, service projects, ceremonies, children's activities such as peace art, essay contests and pinwheels for peace, Peace Day parties and peace vigils that are being planned by more than 1500 organizations in over 160 nations. For highlights, local listings and to list your event, please visit
http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org/

Join the global movement for a culture of peace.
There is so much going on for a better world all around us that the mainstream media never shares. Many different movements for social change are beginning to converge into what UNESCO has described as "a global movement for a culture of peace." The Culture of Peace Initiative (formerly the "We The Peoples" Initiative) is a United Nations-designated Peace Messenger Initiative, coordinated by Pathways To Peace, that is helping to connect organizations and individuals to build a culture of peace. Participation is free. Please visit
http://www.cultureofpeace.org/

(Thanks to Chris Finer.)