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The Origins of Christmas (video)

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The Army Knew Iraq … About 60 Years Ago

Aug. 9, 2007 - In 1943, U.S. servicemen stationed in Iraq were issued a pocket-size 41-page book entitled “A Short Guide to Iraq.” In straightforward prose, the book gave American soldiers a primer to help them through the cultural snarls and byways of the country in which they were stationed. They learned a little history, a little geography and a smattering of vocabulary and grammar.

In light of what we know about Iraq and the Middle East today, the book’s contents look a little slight. But when you reflect on what Americans knew about a then-obscure corner of the world in 1943, it looks like a godsend. Back then there was no television to beam a country’s culture into living rooms around the world. You couldn’t Google “Iraq” and learn basic history and culture on the fly. “A Short Guide to Iraq”—recently republished by the University of Chicago Press as “Instructions for American Servicemen in Iraq During World War II”—filled a big gap in the knowledge of American troops in Iraq, and its overall message was certainly admirable: “You aren’t going to Iraq to change the Iraqis. Just the opposite. We are fighting this war to preserve the principle of ‘live and let live.’ Maybe that sounded like a lot of words to you at home. Now you have a chance to prove it to yourself and others. If you can, it’s going to be a better world to live in for all of us.”

Over and over, the book offers advice built upon the twin notions of tolerance and respect:

“Bread to the Moslems is holy. Don’t throw scraps of it about or let it fall on the ground.”

“In a house or a tent, follow the rule of your host. If he takes off his shoes on entering, do the same.”

Some of the advice is embarrassingly dated, not so much in what it says as how it says it: “If you should see grown men walking hand in hand, ignore it. They are not ‘queer'.” Some of it is, in light of contemporary conditions, laughably understated: “The Iraqis have some religious and tribal differences among themselves.” But to their credit, the anonymous authors of this book never try to oversimplify or make something out to be less complex than it is: “It is a good idea in any foreign country to avoid any religious or political discussions. This is even truer in Iraq than most countries, because it happens that here the Moslems themselves are divided into two factions something like our division into Catholic and Protestant denominations—so don’t put in your two cents worth when Iraqis argue about religion. There are also political differences in Iraq that have puzzled diplomats and statesmen.”

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Iraq's Arms Bazaar

By Christopher DickeyNewsweek

Aug. 20-27, 2007 issue - On the afternoon of Feb. 5, 2006, at a small church in the Turkish Black Sea city of Trabzon, Father Andrea Santoro was kneeling in prayer when a bullet from an Austrian-made Glock 9mm pistol hit him in the back and pierced his heart. The soft-spoken 60-year-old Italian priest, who lived in poverty ministering to the city's tiny Christian community, slumped to the floor, and the killer squeezed off another round. "Allahu akbar!"—"God is great"—said the shooter, a 15-year-old boy with a grudge against the West.

In May of last year, another Muslim fanatic, guns blazing, attacked Turkey's supreme court in Ankara. Four justices were wounded and one was killed. The assassin's weapons of choice were a pair of Glock pistols.

The attacks were no mystery. What puzzled Turkish police was the weapons' origin. Glocks are high-quality sidearms, but by last year they had practically become common street weapons in Turkey. More than 1,000 had been taken from criminals, guerrillas, terrorists and assassins all over the country, and authorities believed tens of thousands more had found their way onto the black market—but from where? The Austrian government repeatedly checked the serial numbers of the murder weapons. The manufacturer informed Ankara that the pistols were consigned originally to " 'US Mission Iraq' [formerly the Coalition Provisional Authority], address: Republican Presidential Compound, Ministry of the Interior, Baghdad, Iraq."

There are many more where those came from. At least three U.S. government agencies are now investigating the massive "disappearance" and diversion of weapons Washington intended for Iraqi government forces that instead have spread to militants and organized gangs across the region. The potential size of the traffic is stunning. A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office last month showed that since 2004, some 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols, bought with U.S. money for Iraqi security forces, have gone missing.

At retail prices in the United States, a Glock 19 costs about $500. On the black market in Turkey, it can fetch up to $3,500, according to the national police. A senior Turkish security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities, said his government estimates some 20,000 U.S.-bought Glock 9mm pistols have been brought from Iraq into his country over the last three years. "The problem on our side is that this corruption is so big they [the Iraqi and U.S. governments] cannot stop it," said the official.

The U.S. military has investigated the problem repeatedly—and the losses look more appalling every time. Major U.S. arms transfers began when Gen. David Petraeus was commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command—Iraq (MNSTC-I), better known as Minsticky. Its mission was to train, arm and organize Iraq's military and police forces, but the Iraqis' weapons came via the State Department, and the supply line was actually run by private contractors. A certain sense of drama militated against good bookkeeping, too. In a recent radio interview, Petraeus—now the commander of all Coalition forces in Iraq—reminisced about helicopters ferrying weapons to Iraqi troops under fire at night in Najaf. Men were "kicking two battalions' worth of equipment off the ramp and getting out of there while we could," he said.

But there were also signs of problems more serious than bad record-keeping. One of Petraeus's subordinates, Col. Theodore Westhusing, had taken leave from his position as a professor of ethics at West Point to serve a six-month tour as commander of the unit training counterterrorism and Special Operations Forces. By the spring of 2005, Westhusing had grown increasingly concerned about the corruption he thought he saw in the program. He was especially upset after receiving an anonymous letter on May 19, 2005, which claimed there was outright fraud by government contractors. Among the alleged problems: failure to account for almost 200 guns.

Westhusing passed the letter up the chain of command. A few days later he wrote a formal memo saying he thought the charges were off-base. But at the same time his conversations and e-mails with his family members became cryptic and he seemed concerned for his safety. Colleagues said he looked exhausted and preoccupied. On June 5, 2005, Westhusing was found dead in his temporary quarters at Camp Dublin near Baghdad airport, apparently having shot himself with his own pistol. "I cannot support a [mission] that leads to corruption, human rights abuses and liars," he wrote in a note found near his body. "Death before being dishonored any more. Trust is essential—I don't know who to trust anymore."

Military investigators concluded that Westhusing's death was a suicide and that the various complaints he leveled against commanders and contractors were "unfounded." Westhusing had had trouble fitting in with other officers, became increasingly withdrawn and seemed depressed when he thought his tour might be extended. But his older brother doesn't believe he killed himself, especially not, as it happened, on his mother's birthday. "Everything he talked about and reported up his chain of command is coming out now: contract fraud, stolen guns and equipment, issues with killings," says Tim Westhusing, who works for IBM in Oklahoma.

General Petraeus declined to comment for the record on the death of Westhusing or the diversion of arms. A senior Pentagon official, talking on background because of the issue's sensitivity, said that a few weeks ago Defense Secretary Robert Gates sent the department's general counsel, Jim Haynes, to "meet with the Turks, hear their concerns and convey that we take them very seriously." The senior official added that in December 2005 the Pentagon launched a "wide-ranging" investigation—which he said was still ongoing—into corruption among contractors in Iraq.

But the first detailed investigation of the missing weapons was conducted last summer by Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. His team found there was a special problem with Glocks: 13,180 were missing, worth as much as $46 million on the black market. The more recent GAO study puts the total figure for missing pistols closer to 80,000.

Neither report comes to any conclusion about where those guns went—at least not publicly. A classified version of the GAO report will be submitted to Congress next month, and the Pentagon's investigation has been handed over to its criminal division and the FBI. But the Turks know what happened to hundreds of those guns, and the congregation of a little church in Trabzon knows only too well how one of them was used.

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Cohen joins House impeachment process

Cohen officially became a co-sponsor of the measures before leaving Washington last weekend, becoming the most recent Democrat to join the impeachment movement started by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, the Memphis Commercial Appeal said Tuesday.

Kucinich introduced a resolution, that would also censure Cheney and President George W. Bush, in April and it has since garnered the support of 18 Democratic co-sponsors.

The impeachment process is oriented around Cheney's alleged involvement in several secret detentions and for his support of a U.S. wiretapping program.

Cohen said Monday that he has also begun an impeachment process against U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for his part in such activities.

"I just think that with what I've seen in these first seven months is that there's been so much disregard for the Constitution by the administration," Cohen said. "I've seen it firsthand on the Judiciary Committee with General Gonzales."

Copyright 2007 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.

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50 arrested at Washington sit-in

The group of about 50 people took their protest to the halls of the Rayburn Building, which houses congressional offices, after a meeting with Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., ImpeachBush.org said. Earlier, hundreds of people marched to the Capitol from Arlington National Cemetery to call for action against Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a spokeswoman for ImpeachBush.org, said Congress should act immediately to introduce articles of impeachment.

"Impeachment is not an option, it is a constitutional requirement," she said. "Representatives are mandated by their oath of office to carry out their constitutional duties."

Sheehan became one of the leading members of the anti-war movement after her son, Casey, was killed in Iraq.

While a number of Democrats in Congress also call for impeachment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid oppose it.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.

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Atheist Blood Drive

In an attempt to show the world that atheists are every bit as charitable as the religious of society, and that we need no "divine warrent" to be so, the RRS has set up a daughter organization called Atheist Volunteers. We hope you will all chip in. The most prominent of it's projects is the Atheist Blood drive.

Click HERE to get more info on this important project!

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Atheists for Autism Research Charity!

Check these guys out, and donate if you can!

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Religious Victim of the day

Girl tortured in the UK because of Christian belief in the devil

The girl, an orphan from Angola, received more than 40 injuries, including being cut with a knife, beaten with a belt and shoe, and having chilli peppers rubbed into her eyes in an attempt to "rid her of the devil". All were members of a church in east London, a "breakaway" faith practising a mixture of evangelical Christianity and traditional African spiritual beliefs. Detectives believe that dozens of children of African origin have been beaten and abused in Britain after being accused of witchcraft by family and friends in a "hidden crime" that is hard to detect and investigate.

Check out this and other stories at the Atheist Rescource website HERE!

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Unreasonably superstitious

Michael Deacon talks to Richard Dawkins

This should be an enjoyable week for Richard Dawkins. Sunday, for example, represents an ideal time for him to launch a fitness programme. Next weekend, he could find love in the shape of a foreign-born person.

At least, that’s according to the horoscope for his star sign, Aries, on the website of the astrologer Russell Grant. But the website of another, Jonathan Cainer, cautions that ‘all will be fine for August – as long as you don’t think too hard about what things really mean.’

Looks as if Dawkins is in for hard times after all, then. Because this Monday, in the first of a two-part series for Channel 4 called The Enemies of Reason, he’ll be thinking hard about what a number of things ‘really mean’ – horoscopes among them. He’s examining the faith many people place in the superstitious and paranormal (such as fortune-telling and seances), and in practices that don’t stand up to rigorous scientific testing (such as dowsing and ‘alternative’ therapies).

‘I’ve long had a sceptical interest in such things,’ says Professor Dawkins, who’s an evolutionary biologist at Oxford. ‘It was a natural follow-up to the programme I did about religion the previous year.’

This was The Root of All Evil?, also for Channel 4, which – like his bestselling book The God Delusion – argued that religious belief is irrational and spreads conflict and ignorance. He believes only in things supported by hard evidence.

His thoughts about superstition are just as remorselessly rational. All very well to get worked up about religion, some might say, but surely reading horoscopes, for instance, is harmless fun?

‘I don’t think it’s harmless in an educational sense,’ says Dawkins. ‘The world is a wonderful place, and one of the most wonderful things is that we’re able to understand many aspects of it. So to be gulled into thinking that idiotic ideas are true… It’s educationally pernicious.’

Particularly since a decreasing number of school pupils are studying science subjects. ‘That’s very sad. I think it’s partly laziness. It’s not just scientific facts that matter, it’s the scientific way of thinking. I think that’s one of the things people are going to lose, the sceptical habit of mind: “Let’s see what the evidence for this is.”’

Some of the superstition-mongers Dawkins met while filming seemed merely dotty (one faith healer told him she had the power to add extra strands to his DNA, to match the quota of the ancient residents of Atlantis). Others, Dawkins felt, were cynical frauds.

He is disappointed that, because of ‘lawyers’ caution’, he was unable to include footage of an encounter he had with a tarot reader who claimed to communicate with the dead.

‘She said, “I can see your father on the other side. He’s sad because he didn’t get to say goodbye properly. He feels that you don’t think about him as often as he’d like.” I said, “That’s strange, because I saw my father only last week. He’s alive and well and living in Oxfordshire.” Immediately, she said, “Right, the interview’s over, stop the camera.”’

Dawkins also questions the way that tax-payers’ money is used to fund the work of homeopaths, who need no qualifications to set up a practice, whose work is unregulated by government, and who offer medicines that are effectively water. He says the popularity of such unproven remedies – Britons spent £1.6bn on alternative medicine last year – is worrying and ‘implicitly casts doubt on scientific medicine’. Meanwhile, properly tested medicines face lengthy delays before being granted approval for use.

The Enemies of Reason doesn’t touch on religion, but, thanks to the success of The God Delusion (in the UK it’s sold 180,000 copies to date in paperback), it remains the subject with which many people most closely associate Dawkins. They won’t be surprised to learn that he was unimpressed by the recent declaration by the Bishop of Carlisle that the floods across England were a ‘judgment’ by God in response to pro-gay legislation.

‘After The Root of All Evil?, I was accused of going after nutcases rather than serious theologians, such as bishops,’ says Dawkins. ‘If the Bishop of Carlisle said what he’s reported to have said, that is a beautiful example of the way people who are thought to be moderate theologians are actually just about as nutty as any of those I interviewed. And what he said is not just nutty, it’s also very nasty.’

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Maher on American pride

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Bullshit episode on Icons

II.


III.

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Christopher Hitchens on the Daily Show

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"Passive" by: a perfect circle

Dead as dead can be
My doctor tells me
But I just can't believe him
Ever the optimistic one
I'm sure of your ability
To become my perfect enemy

Wake up and face me
Don't play dead 'cause maybe
Someday I will walk away and say
You disappoint me
Maybe you're better off this way

Leaning over you here
Cold and catatonic
I catch a brief reflection
Of what you could and might have been
It's your RIGHT and your ability
To become my perfect enemy

Wake up
(Why can’t you?)
And face me
(Come on now)
Don't play dead
(Don’t play dead)
'Cause maybe
(Because maybe)
Someday
(Someday)
I’ll walk away and say
You disappoint me
Maybe you're better off this way

Maybe you're better off this way (×4)
You're better off this (×2)
Maybe you're better off...

Wake up
(Why can't you?)
And face me
(Come on now)
Don't play dead
(Don’t play dead)
'Cause maybe
(Because maybe)
Someday
(Someday)
I’ll walk away and say
You fucking disappoint me
Maybe you're better off this way!

Go ahead and play dead
(GO!)
I know that you can hear this
(GO!)
Go ahead and play dead
(GO!)

Why can't you turn and face me?
(WAKE UP!)
Why can't you turn against me?
(WAKE UP!)
Why can't you turn against me?
(WAKE UP!)
Why can't you turn against me?
(GO!)
You fucking disappoint me

Passive-aggressive bullshit... (×12)

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