Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Meanwhile, In America - And It Came To Pass They Prayed to God For Cheap Gasoline - Die Tageszeitung Germany Via Watching America
In a deep sotto voce:
"And it came to pass"
"And it came to pass"
Praying to GodFor Cheap Gasoline
By Karin Deckenbach
Translated By Ron Argentati
August 15, 2008
Source: Die Tageszeitung, Germany
As usual, the world’s most powerful nation exaggerates: First, gas was ultra-cheap at $1 a gallon. Now it’s super-expensive at $4.40 a gallon. When one considers that the average American drives 20,000 miles a year and their beloved monstrous SUVs only get about 7.4 MPG, it was obvious something had to be done.And it came to pass that Rocky Twyman, leader of a Washington church choir, stood in front of a filing station and prayed. "God is the only one we can turn to at this point," Twyman prayed at the pump. "Our leaders don't seem to be able to do anything about it. The prices keep soaring and soaring." Anyone who wished to follow his example-–and this was broadcast far and wide on American television--was advised to keep it simple: "God, deliver us from these high gas prices," Twyman said. "That's all they have to say." But Twyman quickly added a couple of secular tips: "People have to walk more, leave their cars at home, and carpool," he said.
Gone were the believers. Trying to get around without a car isn’t practical in a country where there aren’t even any sidewalks in the suburbs. In rural areas, there are only long-distance buses, and even in a big city like Los Angeles there’s no subway. The fact is, many commuters now avoid getting stuck in traffic jams by hitchhiking on those freeway lanes designated for two or more passengers per vehicle only.
Just a couple of months ago, congress set new fuel efficiency standards for the auto industry by mandating a fleet average of 35 MPG by the year 2020.
Meanwhile, a popular new sport has developed: “hypermiling.” Brake as little as possible, shift into neutral as often as possible, draft the vehicle ahead of you, turn off your built-in refrigerators and rooftop floodlights-–the internet is brimming with such tips to save fuel. All these things so people won’t have to sell their over-sized Ford Ranger Pick-ups (there’s no market for them now, anyway) and meanwhile, sales of hybrid models have tripled within a year.
Dealers react to the crisis with typical American marketing gimmicks: in Virginia, a supermarket promised free gasoline vouchers at their grand opening. Expectant customers had already created a tent city in front of the store the night before the event. In Nevada, a bordello enticed customers with promises of discount gasoline, although no customers would admit to taking advantage of the offer. The fast-food chain “Five Guys” offered to give customers 6 gallons of free gasoline for every 100 hamburgers they ate. If they haven’t exploded in the meantime, they’re probably still driving today.
But maybe Rocky Twyman’s prayers did manage to help. In June, Americans drove 12.2 billion miles less than the same period the previous year, a reduction of about 4.7 percent. Just like that, the USA was able to lower its crude oil consumption over the first six months of the year by 800,000 barrels a day as compared to 2007.
See? It worked.
Source, and link to original in German:
Thanks For Stopping By
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
The Same Old Song And (Dehumanization) Dance - From 'Charlie' to 'Haji' - ISN Security Watch
"The more stupid shit we do, like shooting up the Koran, the longer we'll be in this country," --Master Sergeant Joseph Kather, US Army reservistLetters From Iraq: From 'Charlie' to 'Haji'
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Military officials say the soldier who had fired at the Muslim holy book has been removed from Iraq, though ISN Security Watch was unable to confirm this independently.
Following target practice with the Koran, US military commanders fear inflamed anti-American sentiment as the pattern of disrespect continues.By Anna Badkhen in Baghdad for ISN Security Watch (27/05/08)
Before the US soldiers climbed into their Bradley fighting vehicles and took off for a two-hour street patrol in southwestern Baghdad, US Army Sergeant First Class Robert Keith had something to tell them.
"You go into a lot of houses," Keith told the young men standing in the dusty gravel before him. "Sometimes you're on your own. I hope you do the right thing."
He took a short pause and surveyed his troops, making sure they understood the importance of what he was about to say.
"If you pull out a Koran and shoot at it," he told them, "I'll kill you."
Keith was reacting to the latest incident that US military commanders here fear may inflame the anti-American sentiment in Iraq: A soldier from Keith's own 4-64 armor battalion of the Fourth Brigade, Third Infantry Division, used the Koran for target practice this month in the predominantly Sunni Baghdad suburb of Radwaniyah.
The shooting of Islam's holy book was the latest publicized illustration of US forces' disregard of Iraqi, and Muslim, culture. The most infamous episode of disrespect during the five-year war saw US soldiers torture Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison.
But degrading treatment of Iraqis is commonplace among US troops, who typically refer to traditional dishdasha shirts as "man-dresses," and use the word "haji" as a derogatory term to refer to Iraqis the way US soldiers in Vietnam called Viet Cong fighters "Charlie."...
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Un-Holy War Chronicles - US sniper in Iraq used Koran for larget practice, writes offensive graffiti
From BBC:
"An American sniper has been sent home from Iraq for using a copy of the Koran for target practice at a shooting range near Baghdad, the US military says."
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He was unnamed, but was reportedly a staff sergeant in a sniper section.
US military spokesman Colonel Bill Buckner said the incident was "both serious and deeply troubling", but stressed it was an "isolated incident and a result of one soldier's actions".
[And then there's this 'isolated incident']
[And this soldier... also 'isolated']
...and a group of soldiers did this "isolated act":
The US army's commander in Baghdad, Major-General Jeffery Hammond, made a personal apology to local Sunni Arab leaders in Radwaniya, CNN reported.
On arrival, he was met by hundreds of protesting tribesmen.
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The military presented the elders with a new copy of the Koran.
(Wasn't that... special...)
Thanks For Stopping By
Tags:
Amoral,
Amorality,
Disinformation,
Genocide,
Haditha,
Holy War,
Iraq,
Iraq War,
Koran,
Moral Turpitude,
Muslim,
Religion,
US Troops In Iraq,
Warmongering
Sunday, March 30, 2008
That Old Time Religion - Police arrest anti-war protester, 80, at mall - Feral Scholar
That Old Time Religion
The Catonsville Nine (Daniel and Philip Berrigan, other activists, burn draft records in a parking lot with homemade napalm)
Not THIS kind of 'religion':
H/T to Stan Goff, Feral Scholar
Police arrest anti-war protester, 80, at mall
[Hat tip to Jeri Reed]
An 80-year-old church deacon was removed from the Smith Haven Mall yesterday in a wheelchair and arrested by police for refusing to remove a T-shirt protesting the Iraq War.
Police said that Don Zirkel, of Bethpage, was disturbing shoppers at the Lake Grove mall with his T-shirt, which had what they described as “graphic anti-war images.” Zirkel, a deacon at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Wyandanch, said his shirt had the death tolls of American military personnel and Iraqis - 4,000 and 1 million - and the words “Dead” and “Enough.” The shirt also has three blotches resembling blood splatters.
Police said in a release last night that…
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Why the 11 o'clock hour on Sunday is the most segregated hour of the week - McClatchy
"What is eminently clear is the degree to which the black church is still largely misunderstood and routinely caricatured in U.S. popular culture. ... We now realize why the 11 o'clock hour on Sunday is the most segregated hour of the week,"McClatchy Washington Bureau
Sat, Mar. 29, 2008
Black church leaders back Obama's pastor at Texas event
Terry Lee Goodrich | Fort Worth Star-Telegram
DALLAS — In the wake of the controversy over statements by a former pastor of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, leaders of a black church summit took issue with characterizations of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright as racist."What is eminently clear is the degree to which the black church is still largely misunderstood and routinely caricatured in U.S. popular culture. ... We now realize why the 11 o'clock hour on Sunday is the most segregated hour of the week," said Stacey Floyd-Thomas, director of black church studies at Fort Worth's Brite Divinity School, during a news conference Friday at Dallas' Friendship West Baptist Church.
About 20 scholars from the summit stood with Floyd-Thomas, an associate professor of ethics, among them Wright's cousin, the Rev. Dennis Wiley of Covenant Baptist Church in Washington D.C. Wright was to have appeared at the summit Saturday, but canceled.
The summit was moved to Dallas from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth out of security concerns....
Read the full story at Star-Telegram.com
Source
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