jimrigby.org

NASA released some new pictures from the surface of Mars. These are hi resolution color photos and some gifs.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/29/new-hd-mars-pictures-curiosity_n_1840585.html

Mathematics may be precise, but economics are a different matter. As statistics make their way through the prejudices of the mind they gain or lose gravity depending on one’s values. What follows is a rebuttal of the conservative mantra that taxing the wealthy would not put a dent in the deficit. See what you think.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/08/27

Bob Jensen and I are good friends and agree on most things, but this week he has put our friendship to the test by writing an article criticizing the sacred sport of football. It is called, “Learning to hate longhorn football.” Okay, he didn’t actually attack Bevo, as the title suggests, but if the football program is closed down, Bevo is a beef sandwich.

In the interest of full disclosure, I must confess that I am a football fan. I am also a graduate of the Universtity of Texas. I would be a hypocrite to post this article without confessing that I will watch the Cowboy game tonight. But I am posting this essay because, like most things Bob Jensen writes, it raises questions a lot of us don’t want to ask. In this case, he is asking what effect college football programs may be having on the rest of education, and on the athletes themselves.

I suspect we will have a good conversation about this. And remember, just because Bob Jensen is a Godless football hating yankee doesn’t mean we shouldn’t love him.

http://www.austinpost.org/opinion/learning-hate-longhorn-football

As a minister, I try to rise above party politics and to speak instead of universal human rights. I do not identify as a Democrat because I consider both parties to be embedded in the problems of predatory capitalism and empire. Followers of this blog know I criticize Obama when I think he’s wrong, which is often.

But I have a problem in my attempts to be non-partisan. Republicans continue a full-out assault on everything I care about as a human being. Yesterday, the GOP unleashed a party platform that cobbles together the kinds of ignorant pettiness I disliked as a child growing up in a Republican culture, and have grown to hate more every day I have lived on the planet.

While some of us are still grieving recent shootings across our nation, the GOP is calling for unlimited bullet clips for guns. At at time when religious intolerance seems to be growing, the GOP wants to wants to force displays of the Ten Commandments into the public sphere. (Because we all know, if there’s one thing that will save America, it’s more plaques). The GOP which so eagerly appealed to states rights to deny same-gender marriage, now wants to deprive states of the right to allow them. (Because we all know if my marriage isn’t working it’s because of what somebody else is doing). The GOP wants to combat illegal immigration without ending the corporate exploitation of other nations in our hemisphere that caused the problem in the first place.

The subtitle for the platform is “We believe in America,” which is the kind of vacuus self worshipping verbage that makes my skin crawl.  They lift up symbols like the flag cut while cutting benefits for veterans. They speak of life and deprive people of health care. They claim a sacred right of ownership of guns, and deny that same right to women over their own bodies.  I continue to believe we should transcend partisan politics, but I do not know how anyone can ignore these assaults on human rights.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/29/us/politics/republican-platform-takes-turn-to-right.html?_r=1

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/28/platform-abortion_n_1837571.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk1%26pLid%3D198426

“Once a religious group forms an opinion about what a text means, it can read that text over and over again and project onto the text something that simply isn’t there. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah story is a parable. It is a teaching story. In the Jewish scripture, the prophets talk about Sodom and Gomorrah several times — Isaiah does, Amos does, Ezekiel does — but of all the references to Sodom and Gomorrah among the Jewish prophets, not one of them mentions the topic of homosexuality. What they talk about is social injustice, cruelty and a people mad with power. What do you think it means, that we in America are not willing to hear the real meaning of this story?” -Jim Rigby

http://www.vimeo.com/47888380

One of my sick hobbies is to go to strange religious and political sites on Youtube.com. I am fascinated by human thought gone astray. So the rash of strange Obama conspiracy theories has been like a opium den for my pitiful addiction. Here are some more examples I found this week. Some of the clips are a bit long, but you’ll quickly get a sense of the logic of the theory, or lack there of.

Did you know what “Yes we can!” played backwards is? Of course you don’t you pathetic sheep. “Yes we can” played backwards is “Thank you Satan.” I’m not sure where the “th” sound comes from but we all know Satan is very crafty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqALdkTArqs&feature=related

Are Osama bin Laden and and Obama same person? Wake up people! Why do you think it was so important for Obama to “kill” bin Laden and dump his “body” at sea? Obviously he was covering his tracks! This is another scientific study of eye widths and hand shapes. We all know there is not respected science than phrenology.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9_lpaeCo1o&feature=related

Did Obama kill Whitney Houston? This story is too hot for the mainstream media to touch. This study, also scientific, recounts her last moments. It captures what she was thinking in those last moments alone. Don’t ask how they would know what she was thinking while she was alone. Let the river of conspiracy certainly sweep over you.

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/02/obama_whitney_houston_illumina.php

Most people equate “genocide” with the actual attempt to exterminate a people, as when the Nazis tried to exterminate Jewish and other groups they considered inferior human beings. But according to the legal definition of the word, genocide is also the attempt to make it impossible for a people to exist as a cultural or political entity. By that definition, it can be contended that the Palestinian people are suffering genocide.

The UN Report included below is a very conservative, matter of fact description of life in Gaza. It does not vilify Israel, but it does put the handwriting on the wall. Between blockades, settlements, and different laws for Jewish and Palestinian people, one does not have to look very far down the road to see the extinction of the Palestinian people as a cultural and political entity with a homeland of their own.

Every nation has a right to defend itself, and Israel is no exception to that rule. Israel does have enemies from which it should be safe, but that does not justify mistreatment of those weaker in its midst. Many modern Israelites believe God gave them the promised land, they should also notice that the conditions for that gift was that they not mistreat the sojourner and alien in their midst.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19391809

When I left for college I made the mistake of reading the Autobiography of Gandhi and then the writings of Schweitzer. I realized at once that I no longer wanted to hurt animals and resolved to be a vegetarian. I have been vegetarian for about thirty years, but I don’t mention this topic often because it makes people feel bad for eating meat and that is not my intent. I read the following article about world food shortages, and how eating less meat might help avoid disaster for other nations, I thought these might be important insights to share.

“Leading water scientists have issued one of the sternest warnings yet about global food supplies, saying that the world’s population may have to switch almost completely to a vegetarian diet over the next 40 years to avoid catastrophic shortages.

Humans derive about 20% of their protein from animal-based products now, but this may need to drop to just 5% to feed the extra 2 billion people expected to be alive by 2050, according to research by some of the world’s leading water scientists.

“There will not be enough water available on current croplands to produce food for the expected 9 billion population in 2050 if we follow current trends and changes towards diets common in western nations,” the report by Malik Falkenmark and colleagues at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) said.”

“There will be just enough water if the proportion of animal-based foods is limited to 5% of total calories and considerable regional water deficits can be met by a … reliable system of food trade.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/aug/26/food-shortages-world-vegetarianism

I believe it was Emerson who said if the stars came out once every thousand years we would be stunned at their beauty, but as it is we hardly look up at them. The following article from the Guardian can help us to appreciate the wonders that will pass above us this coming month. Saturn, Mars, Venus and Jupiter will all be on display from time to time this month. There is also a chart of the visible constellations for September.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/aug/26/starwatch-milky-way-saturn-mars

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/world/middleeast/us-foreign-arms-sales-reach-66-3-billion-in-2011.html?_r=1