Racist Obama T-Shirt

Pam Lindley of Marietta holds up the T-shirt in question as about a dozen people protested outside Mulligan's bar in Marietta Tuesday. They object to the establishment selling a Curious George t-shirt that says 'Obama in '08.' The bar has caused controversy in the past with its billboard messages.

At the end of the day, despite all of his prestigious education, work experience, best-selling books, to some White people (and other non-blacks), Obama is still nothing but a "monkey" ni%%a...

What kind of world do we really live in?

And who in their right mind would see the T-shirt as a harmless joke?

Because of the actions of ghetto blacks that I hear about in the media on an almost daily basis, some days I feel ashamed of my people. Today, I feel ashamed of my humanity....

People can be so cruel. It seems like it takes a human to truly be inhumane....

Come on people, let's unite this "Yet to Be United States of America."

$$$ Good for One Gallon of Gas $$$

2008 NAACP speech transcript by Jeremiah Wright

This is the transcript of a speech given by Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, at an NAACP dinner on Sunday night:


"The NAACP has an incomparable record. It has the longest list of achievements in the history of this country as being the undisputed champion in the fight against discrimination, racial prejudice, and unjust public policies, which have caused people made in the image of God to be treated as less than human or treated as second-class citizens.
In its early days, the NAACP and the black church in the United States of America were seemingly joined at the hip in the fight against injustice and the fight for equality on behalf of all people of color.
Many local chapters of the NAACP were started in black churches. Hundreds of black churches. The NAACP's fight for justice and freedom, however, is not limited to the concerns of the black church, historically or contemporaneously. And when the truth is told, as Paula
Giddings does so powerfully in her book "When and Where I Enter," there were times when the NAACP had to drag some timid black preachers along kicking and screaming as in the Montgomery bus boycott designed by the NAACP, not the SCLC.
Throughout its 99-year history, the NAACP has been built by people of all races, all nationalities, and all faiths on one primary premise, which is that all men and women are created equal. The nation's oldest civil rights organization has changed America's history. Despite violence, intimidation, and hostile government policies, the NAACP and its grassroots membership have persevered.
Now, somebody please tell the Oakland county executive that that sentence starting with the words "despite violence, intimidation, and hostile government policies" is a direct quote from the NAACP's profile in courage. It didn't come from Jeremiah Wright.
Otherwise, he will attribute the quote to me and continue to say that I and am one of the most divisive people he has ever of heard speak. When he has never heard me speak. And just to help him out, I am not one of the most divisive. Tell him the word is descriptive.
I describe the conditions in this country. Conditions divide, not my descriptions. Somebody say "Amen." If you can't say "Amen," you're too mad, just say "Ouch."
The NAACP is nonpartisan. The NAACP is not beholden to, controlled by, or partial to any one faith tradition. The NAACP says proudly that it is a compound of people of all races, all nationalities and all faiths.
And it is for that reason that I am especially grateful to Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony and the Detroit branch of the NAACP for honoring me by having me address their 2008 theme "A Change is Going to Come."
One of your cities' political analysts says in print that first just my appearance here in Detroit will be polarizing. Well, I'm not here for political reasons. I am not a politician. I know that fact will surprise many of you because many in the corporate-owned media have made it seem as if I had announced that I'm running to for the Oval Office. I am not running for the Oval Office. I've been running for Jesus a long, long time, and I'm not tired yet.
I am sorry your local political analysts and your neighboring county executives think my being here is polarizing and my sermons are divisive, but I'm not here to address an analyst's opinion or a county executive's point of view. I am here to address your 2008 theme, and I stand here as one representative of the African American religious tradition which works in concert with other faith traditions, believing as we work together that a change is going to come.
On that point, about other faith traditions, in addition to Pastor Anthony, Pastor Nicholas Hood, Pastor Charles Adams, Pastor William Revelli, Pastor James Perkins, Pastor Wilma Rudolph, Pastor Holly who is suffering from a stroke, Father Michael Flager, Father Jeremy Tobin, Pastor Dee Dee Coleman, Dr. Georgia Hill and Rev. Lonnie Peek. I would also like to thank Sister Melanie Maron, the former executive director of the Chicago chapter of the American Jewish Committee and the current executive director of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the American Jewish committee. I would like to thank my good friend and Jewish author Tim Wise for his support, and I would like to offer a special "shookran" to Imam Muhammad Ali Elahi of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights for his courage, his conviction and his support.
The support of the Jewish community, the Muslim community, and the Christian community, Protestant and Catholic, is in concert with the credo of the NAACP and a definite sign that a change is definitely going to come. An additional special thank you is offered to Soledad O'Brien for CNN's outstanding "Black in America" and my long-term friend Roland Martin.
I believe that a change is going to come because many of us are committing to changing how we see others who are different.
In the past, we were taught to see others who are different as somehow being deficient. Christians saw Jews as being deficient. Catholics saw Protestants as being deficient. Presbyterians saw Pentecostals as being deficient.
Folks who like to holler in worship saw folk who like to be quiet as deficient. And vice versa.
Whites saw black as being deficient. It was none other than Rudyard Kipling who saw the "White Man's Burden" as a mandate to lift brown, black, yellow people up to the level of white people as if whites were the norm and black, brown and yellow people were abnormal subspecies on a lower level or deficient.
Europeans saw Africans as deficient. Lovers of George Friedrich Handel and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart saw lovers of B.B. King and Frankie Beverly and Maze as deficient. Lovers of Marian Anderson saw lovers of Lady Day and Anita Baker as deficient. Lovers of European cantatas -- Comfort ye in the glory, the glory of the Lord -- Lovers of European cantatas saw lovers of common meter -- I love the Lord, He heard my cry -- they saw them as deficient.
In the past, we were taught to see others who are different as being deficient. We established arbitrary norms and then determined that anybody not like us was abnormal. But a change is coming because we no longer see others who are different as being deficient. We just see them as different. Over the past 50 years, thanks to the scholarship of dozens of expert in many different disciplines, we have come to see just how skewed, prejudiced and dangerous our miseducation has been.
Miseducation. Miseducation incidentally is not a Jeremiah Wright term. It's a word coined by Dr. Carter G. Woodson over 80 years ago. Sounds like he talked a hate speech, doesn't it? Now, analyze that. Two brilliant scholars and two beautiful sisters, both of whom hail from Detroit in the fields of education and linguistics, Dr. Janice Hale right here at Wayne State University, founder of the Institute for the study of the African-American child. and Dr. Geneva Smitherman formerly of Wayne State University now at Michigan State University in Lansing. Hail in education and Smitherman in linguistics. Both demonstrated 40 years ago that different does not mean deficient. Somebody is going to miss that.
Turn to your neighbor and say different does not mean deficient. It simply means different. In fact, Dr. Janice Hale was the first writer whom I read who used that phrase. Different does not mean deficient. Different is not synonymous with deficient. It was in Dr. Hale's first book, "Black Children their Roots, Culture and Learning Style." Is Dr. Hale here tonight? We owe her a debt of gratitude. Dr. Hale showed us that in comparing African-American children and European-American children in the field of education, we were comparing apples and rocks.
And in so doing, we kept coming up with meaningless labels like EMH, educable mentally handicapped, TMH, trainable mentally handicapped, ADD, attention deficit disorder.
And we were coming up with more meaningless solutions like reading, writing and Ritalin. Dr. Hale's research led her to stop comparing African-American children with European-American children and she started comparing the pedagogical methodologies of African-American children to African children and European-American children to European children. And bingo, she discovered that the two different worlds have two different ways of learning. European and European-American children have a left brained cognitive object oriented learning style and the entire educational learning system in the United States of America. Back in the early '70s, when Dr. Hale did her research was based on left brained cognitive object oriented learning style. Let me help you with fifty cent words.
Left brain is logical and analytical. Object oriented means the student learns from an object. From the solitude of the cradle with objects being hung over his or her head to help them determine colors and shape to the solitude in a carol in a PhD program stuffed off somewhere in a corner in absolute quietness to absorb from the object. From a block to a book, an object. That is one way of learning, but it is only one way of learning.
African and African-American children have a different way of learning.
They are right brained, subject oriented in their learning style. Right brain that means creative and intuitive. Subject oriented means they learn from a subject, not an object. They learn from a person. Some of you are old enough, I see your hair color, to remember when the NAACP won that tremendous desegregation case back in 1954 and when the schools were desegregated. They were never integrated. When they were desegregated in Philadelphia, several of the white teachers in my school freaked out. Why? Because black kids wouldn't stay in their place. Over there behind the desk, black kids climbed up all on them.
Because they learn from a subject, not from an object. Tell me a story. They have a different way of learning. Those same children who have difficulty reading from an object and who are labeled EMH, DMH and ADD. Those children can say every word from every song on every hip hop radio station half of who's words the average adult here tonight cannot understand. Why? Because they come from a right-brained creative oral culture like the (greos) in Africa who can go for two or three days as oral repositories of a people's history and like the oral tradition which passed down the first five book in our Jewish bible, our Christian Bible, our Hebrew bible long before there was a written Hebrew script or alphabet. And repeat incredulously long passages like Psalm 119 using mnemonic devices using eight line stanzas. Each stanza starting with a different letter of the alphabet. That is a different way of learning. It's not deficient, it is just different. Somebody say different. I believe that a change is going to come because many of us are committed to changing how we see other people who are different.
What Dr. Janice Hale did in the field of education, Dr. Geneva Smitherman did in the field of linguistics. Almost 25 years ago now, Dr. Smitherman's book published by Wayne State University talking and testifying the language of black America taught us the same thing. Different does not mean deficient. Linguists have known since the mid 20th century that number one, nobody in Detroit, with the exception of citizens born and raised in the United Kingdom, nobody in Detroit speaks English. We all speak different varieties of American. If you don't believe me, go to the United Kingdom. As soon as you open your mouth in the United Kingdom, they'll say oh you're from America. Because they hear you speak in American. Linguists knew that nobody in here speaks English, but only black children 50 years ago were singled out as speaking bad English.
In the 1961, it's been all over the Internet now, John Kennedy could stand at the inauguration in January and say, "ask not what your country can do for you, it's rather what you can do for your country." How do you spell is? Nobody ever said to John Kennedy that's not English "is". Only to a black child would they say you speak bad English. Kennedy got killed. Johnson stepped up to the podium and love feel, we just left love feel. And Johnson, said my fellow Americans. How do you spell fellow? How do you spell American? Nobody says to Johnson you speak bad English.
Ed Kennedy, today, those of you in the Congress, you know Kilpatrick. You know, Ed Kennedy today cannot pronounce cluster consonants. Very few people from Boston can. They pronounce park like it's p-o-c-k. Where did you "pock" the car? They pronounce f-o-r-t like it's f-o-u-g-h-t. We fought a good battle. And nobody says to a Kennedy you speak bad English. Only to a black child was that said. Linguists knew that 50 years ago and they also knew number two that every language, including the language of Jesus, Aramaic, was made up of five subsets, pragmatic, grammar, syntax, semantics and phonics and that African speakers of English and African speakers of French and African speakers of Portuguese and African speakers of Spanish in the new world had created languages, not dialect all with five different subsets.
Languages, not Creole or Patois, languages. And Dr. Smitherman compiled the findings of an interdisciplinary research along with her own brilliant findings to show us that the language of black Americans was different, not deficient. She combined the findings of early childhood education, linguistics, socio-linguistics and the pedagogy of the oppressed to demonstrate most powerfully that different does not mean deficient. It simply means what? Different. I believe a change is going to come because many of us are committed to changing the way we see others who are different.
What Dr. Janice Hale did in the field of education and what Dr. Geneva Smitherman did in the field of linguistics, Dr. (Eldon) did in the field of ethnomusicology, the field of music. He showed us 40 years ago what Wintley [Phipps] is teaching you for the first time 40 years later. African music is different from European piano music. It is not deficient, it is different. In most school systems today, the way most of us over 40 years of age were taught is still being taught. We were taught a European paradigm as if Europe had the only music that there was in the world. As a matter of fact, if you just say the term, classical music.
Today, most here, use of that term will automatically refer to Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and already cited Mozart and Handel. European musicians. From grammar school to graduate school, we are taught in four, four time. That the dominant beat is on one and three. Our band directors, our choir directors, our orchestra director start us off how?
And One, two, three, four. One, two, three. Now, that's the European dominant beat. For African and African-Americans, it is not one and three, it is two and four. I don't have to teach you. Listen to black people clap to this song. Glory, glory hallelujah, you are clapping on beats two and four. If you got some white friends, they'll be clapping like this. You say they can't clap. Yes, they can. They clap in a different way. It's the same fact holds true with six eight time. Europeans stress one, two, three, four, five, six. One, two, three, four, five, six. Dum dum, dum, dum, dum. The stress is on one and four. Not for black people. When you got six eight time, blacks stress two three and five six.
Listen to this -- blessed assurance, Jesus is mine two, three for, five, six - oh, why are you clapping on the wrong beat? Africans have a different meter and Africans have a different tonality. European music is diatonic, seven tones. Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do. That's Italian. Europe. In west Africa and south Africa, it is not diatonic, seven tones, it is pentatonic with five tones. Wintley [Phipps] points out that if you want to know black music, just look at the black keys on the piano. Do, re, fa, so, la. Just those five tunes. Those are the only five notes you'll hear and somebody knows the trouble I've seen.
It only uses five notes the same with the river it also uses five notes. That's all. I believe a change is coming. It's not deficient, it's just different.
Many of us are committed to changing how we see others who are different. When you look at and listen to - I'm in Michigan. OK. Here in Michigan, look at and listen to the University of Michigan and Michigan State University bands at halftime. Their bands hit the field with excellent European precision. Da, da, da, da, da, ta, ra, ra.
Now go to a Florida A&M and Gramling Band. It's different. And you can't put that in no book. I believe change is going to come because many of us are committed to changing how we see others who are different. One is not superior to the other. One is not normal with the other being abnormal. One is not deficient because it doesn't follow the same methodology of the other. It is just different. Different does not mean deficient. Tell your neighbor one more time.
Now, what is true in the field of education, linguistics, ethnomusicology, marching bands, psychology and culture is also true in the field of homiletics, hermeneutics, biblical studies, black sacred music and black worship. We just do it different and some of our haters can't get their heads around that. I come from a religious tradition that does not divorce the world we live in from the world we are heading to. I come from a religious tradition that does not separate the kingdom of heaven that we pray for from the devious kingdoms of humans that keep people in bondage on earth.
I come from a religious tradition that did not hold slaves, but preached against slavery and worked to end slavery. I come from a religious tradition that fought against Lansing like the NAACP, fought against discrimination like the NAACP and fought against skin privilege, fought against apartheid, fought again unfair labor practices, fought against segregation, fought against Plessy versus Ferguson.
I come from a religious tradition that fought for desegregation like NAACP. Fought for equality, fought for human dignity, fought for civil rights, fought for equal protection into the law and fought for the right of every citizen to have quality education regardless of the color of their skin. I also come from a religious tradition that say if you feel excited about something, be excited about it. Don't stand there he has hate speech. Listen to how bombastic he is. Isn't he bombastic? He's stirring up hate.
You love somebody? Yes. Oh how I love Jesus because he first loved me. No. No. No. If you feel it - I come from a religious tradition where we shout in the sanctuary and march on the picket line. I come from a religious tradition where we give God the glory and we give the devil the blues. The black religious tradition is different. We do it a different way. 40 years ago, Dr. Anthony (inaudible) quoted in '68 the Kerner report stated that they were two different Americas. And for
40 years one of those Americas has acted as if they were the only America. But all of that now is in the past. I believe a change is coming. Because many of us are going to change how we see others who are different. I've got to hurry on. I'm taking too much of your time. So let me give you the outline of the rest of this message. You can either fill in the blanks for yourselves or you could wait for my book that will be out later this year.
I believe addressing your theme. I believe a change is going to come because many of us here tonight, at least 11,900 out of 12,000. Many of us are committed to changing how we see others who are different. Number one, many of us are committed to changing how we see ourselves. Number two, not inferior or superior to, just different from others. Embracing our own histories. Embracing our own cultures. Embracing our own languages as we embrace others who are also made in the image of god. That has been the credo of the NAACP for 99 years. When we see ourselves as members of the human race, I believe a change is on the way. When we see ourselves as people of faith who shared this planet with people of other faiths, I believe a change is on the way.
Many of us are committed to changing how we see others who are different. Number one, many of us are committed to changing how we see ourselves, not stepchildren, number two but God's children. Many of us are committed to changing, number three, the way we treat each other. The way black men treat black women. The way black parents treat black children. The way black youth treat black elders and the way black elders treat black youth. We are committed to changing the way we treat each other. The way the so called haves and have mores, to use Bush's speech writers term. Don't you all think he made that up? The way the have and have mores treat the have notes. The way the educated treat the uneducated. The way those with degrees treat those who never made it through high school. The way those of us who never got caught treat those of us who are incarcerated. Making rehabilitation a priority over incarceration.
We are committed to changing the way we treat each other. The way we treat the latest immigrants because everybody in here who's not an Indian do be an immigrant. Some of you all came on a decks of ship and some of us came on the bows and hauls of the ship, but we all are immigrants. The way we treat non Christians and folks who don't believe what we believe, we're committed to changing the way we treat each other. The way Sunis treat Shiites, the way Orthodox Jews treat reformed Jews. The way church folk treat other church folk. The way speakers of English treat speakers of Arabic -- Maasalam al hal.
Please run and tell my stuck on stupid friends that Arabic is a language, it's not a religion. Barack Hussein Obama. Barack Hussein Obama. Barack Hussein Obama. They are Arabic-speaking Christians, Arabic-speaking Jews and Arabic speaking atheists. Arabic is a language, it's not a religion. Stop trying to scare folks by giving them an Arabic name as if it's some sort of a disease.
Same people thought that the Irish had a disease. When the Irish came here. Did you hear my me O'Malley? O'Reilly? They thought you were - well they might have been might, the way we treat each other, many of us are committed to changing the way we treat each other. The way Christians treat you. The way straights treat gays. We are committed to changing the way we treat each other. And we are committing number four to changing the way we mistreat each other. We can do better, you all. There is a higher standard, you all. We know that and we are stretching to reach that standard. I believe a change is going to come because many of us are committed to changing how we see others who are different.
Many of us are committed to changing how we see ourselves. Many of us are committed to changing the way we treat each other. Many of us are committed to changing the way we mistreat each other. And many of us finally are committed to changing this world that we live in so our children and our grandchildren will have a world in which to live in to grow in, to learn in, to love in and to pass on to their children. We are committed to changing this world that's God's world, in the first place. Not ours. And I believe we can do it. It's going to take hard work, but we can do it.


It's going to take people of all faiths including the nation of Islam, but we can do it. It's going to take people of all races, but we can do it. It's going to take Republicans and Democrats, but we can do it. It's going to take the wisdom of the old and the energy of the young, but we can do it. It's going to take politicians and preachers, the government and NGOs, but we can do it. It's going to take educators and legislatures, but we can do it. If I were in a Christian Church, I would say we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. If I were in a Jewish synagogue, I would say is anything too hard for Elohim. If I were in a Muslim mosque, I would say Sha Allah we can do it. If I were pushing one particular candidate, I would say yes, we can.
But, since this is a nonpartisan gathering and since this is neither a mosque, a synagogue or a sanctuary, just let me say, we can do it. We can make it if we try. We can make the change if we try. We will make a change if we try. A change is going to come. Can you feel it? Can you see it? Can you imagine it? Then come on, let's claim it. Give yourselves a standing ovation while the transformation that's about to jump off. A change is going to come."

United Corporations of America

25 things you can do to prevent cancer

Anyone can develop cancer. One in three people will be diagnosed with the disease during their lifetime.

That doesn't sound encouraging, but, consider this: Experts believe more than two-thirds of all cancer cases can be prevented if we would just make the right lifestyle choices.

How we live affects our health, and not surprisingly, we're now finding many common cancers are linked to lifestyle.

That's actually good news. Not that we're suggesting cancer is completely curable, but many can be influenced by simple healthy measures.

Here are 25 things you can do to prevent cancer:
1) Don't smoke
2) Limit alcohol consumption
3) Enjoy chocolate (in moderation)
4) Sweat out toxins
5) Eat 5-9 servings of fruits & veggies
6) Eat cruciferous vegetables
7) Eat less red meat
8) Avoid products made with nitrates
9) Lose weight
10) Get regular exercise
11) Reduce stress
12) Make a place for spirituality
13) Do monthly self-exams
14) Follow screening guidelines
15) Know your family history
16) Practice safe sex
17) Girls get HPV vaccine
18) High risk women get annual MRIs
19) Reconsider hormone replacement therapy
20) Teach your kids a cancer-free lifestyle now
21) Avoid tanning beds
22) Protect your skin from the sun
23) Check for radon in your home
24) Do your part to reduce air pollution
25) Participate in clinical trials

The Potential Power of the Purified Mind by Michael Goodspeed and Michael Armstrong

Most spiritual aspirants have some familiarity with the concept of acceptance. The word permeates much of the spiritual literature as a corollary to the themes of "surrender" and "forgiveness." The popular prayer/adage "I must accept what I cannot change and change what I cannot accept" seems a noble and reasonable policy in this tumultuous and/or indifferent Universe. Bad things happen to good people and we accept it because, we tell ourselves, it's all part of God's great plan, it's "for our own good," and in any event, we don't have any other choice.
Acceptance is surely a valid mental exercise insofar as it helps one experience life in a manner that is more lighthearted and friendly. We can't change other people, we can't undo the past, and we can't predict every trial and travail looming over the horizon. But what if man's tacit "acceptance" of his general helplessness and victim hood in a dangerous, troubled world is itself a major barrier to doing something about it?
From the day we are born, we are taught to accept the unacceptable as a matter of course. We all learn quickly that illness, disease, injuries, pain, trauma, aging, loss, and finally death are a fair price to pay for the privilege of "living." And neither scientific, nor most religious or spiritual literature ever contradicts these expectations. Mainstream biology and medicine tell us that we are mechanistic organisms born by chance and destined to die in a hostile, disconnected universe.
And both institutional religions and most spiritual philosophies treat "spirituality" as a mere anesthetic to the unavoidable human outcomes of suffering and death. If you view suffering and dying as a problem, you are supposed to be comforted by the promise of an afterlife in which one will be free from the endless heartaches and sorrows endemic to an earthly existence. Indeed, many religious and "spiritual" thought systems glorify suffering as a purifying force and/or badge of honor that will only increase the rewards one reaps in the eternal hereafter.
So where can one turn if one is unable or unwilling to "accept" these seemingly immutable premises that define and limit the human condition? Improbable as it may seem, it can be said that NONE of the institutions, either secular or religious, that exist mainly to relieve human suffering have ever proposed how man may be uplifted from his damaged, limited state to one of true empowerment. Although the word empower is used casually in political discourse, most often to describe the government's dispensation of "civil rights" to certain individuals, to be truly empowered means literally to have absolute authority over one's own destiny. It is commonly accepted that such a thing is not plausible, possible, nor even desirable for mere human beings. In fact, both religious and governmental authorities relentlessly command us to acquiesce personal authority in favor of submission to some "higher power," be it earthly or "divine," for our own best interests. And since our helplessness seems confirmed in every facet of human experience, this call to submit goes largely unchallenged.
In a highly religious world, those who aren't satisfied with their personal reality or the reality of the world frequently turn to God for an answer. People pray for everything from personal health to the safety of loved ones to financial prosperity to world peace. But in a world dominated by warfare, poverty, disease, and every conceivable form of injustice, it seems that these "prayers" are rarely if ever answered. The only logical conclusion one can come to is either A) prayers are never answered because no creator nor agency exists to hear them; or B) the practice of prayer by most human beings is misguided, because they are working with incorrect concepts of "God."
So far—in the history of the world—the world’s religions have neither been able to inspire their god to do anything substantive about the “human condition”, nor have they done much of any significance themselves -- except to offer “coping” mechanisms! The “positive” coping mechanisms offered in the English speaking western world consist of 4 or 5 things: Temporary mystical experience, quasi-fellowship, quasi-miracles, prayer and meditation, some time oriented structure to their lives, and finally promises and hope. One is reminded of the popular axiom, “Hope makes a good breakfast but a lousy dinner”.
Down through the ages into our time, religions have also promulgated every unflattering and insulting concept of god in the spectrum of the highest human value system. Right along side of being merciful, loving and gracious, God has been portrayed as inconsistent, mean, petty, vengeful, violent, vicious, unforgiving, dominating, demanding, unreasonable, alien (“who can know they ways” and “thy ways are past understanding), and cruel (he will be burning humans for ever and ever in some literal fiery hell). Books have been written to show that this is even an unwarranted interpretation of New Testament passages. The God of religion has in fact come to represent everything that could be characterized as anti-God. So pervasive are these imageries of God that, throughout much of the world, the phrase "Holy Warrior" goes unrecognized as an oxymoron. Countless millions of devotees have been willing to burn themselves and others at the stake in concordance with what they view as directives from God. Due to this overt and seemingly endless lunacy, more human beings today than ever before are skeptical of religion. ("Religion has made atheists of many honest men" – David R. Hawkins).
Yet many choose not to abandon their inner call to spirit, seeking instead a spiritual thought system that is more benevolent and constructive to life. In the United States, countless bestsellers have been written on spirituality, with authors such as Eckhart Tolle, Marianne Williams, and Deepak Chopra, et al. preaching a message of forgiveness, "acceptance," and unconditional love. Whereas much religion instructs the faithful to bow to an angry God, most proponents of what might be called "the new age" teach that the Universe is friendly—if friendliness is consonant with being born into an insane, troubled, dangerous world under a sentence of death--, and that happiness is achieved by simply existing in the present moment and “surrendering” to what is. In this thought system, the problems of the world and one's life are illusory – they exist only in our minds due to limited and/or false perception. Undeniably, this approach seems to be a brighter, better alternative to the darker and grimmer aspects of religion and religious concepts of god, and may be helpful to those who seek greater equanimity and inner peace. But the questions must be asked: Have these new approaches gone far enough? Are they correct (consonant with reality) enough? Can they succeed at truly resolving the human condition, and provide every human being with what they really want and need?
From our perspective, the teachings of Jesus, when correctly interpreted and free from the selective coloring of religious dogmatists, provide a clear instructive path to a state of empowerment, i.e. a condition where human beings can change current “reality" for the benefit of all. Even physical death can be transcended for truly empowered individuals – on this point Jesus was particularly explicit. For those who seek a concept of God that is both benevolently healing, consistently loving and sane, any other point of view can only be described at best as inadequate, at worst as destructive.
But in our purportedly "Christian" nation, the fundamental tenets of Jesus' teachings are barely discussed and almost never believed, even by the most devoutly Christian "faithful." In fact, one can argue that institutional Christian doctrine “reads right around the best parts” and has over centuries come to preach the precise OPPOSITE of Jesus' intended message to humanity. In the Gospel of John, we are told that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." But within traditional Christian denominations, physical death is not viewed as something that lowly human beings can entirely bypass because there is always a hiatus. The "everlasting life" promised by Jesus--the destiny of righteous "souls" that have been judged favorably by God—is only delivered after death.
The Father for whom Jesus spoke, however, bore no resemblance to the capricious, schizophrenic entity of the Old Testament and other sacred writings. Jesus could not have been more clear that the Father was not in the business of dispensing judgement and wrath upon his own creation, nor was it God's will for human beings to suffer and die: "…as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he will….For neither does the Father judge any man, but he has given all judgment unto the Son…Truly, truly, I say unto you, He that hears my message, and believes him that sent me, has eternal life, and comes not into judgment, but has passed out of death into life…."
A large part of healing may have to start with spiritual sanity, conceptual clarity and correctness. It might be stated that Jesus' primary intention was to change man's concept of God as being both separate from, and superior to, His creation. To the disciple Phillip when challenged to “show us the father”, Jesus replied—no doubt with frustration--, “If you have understood me, you have understood the father.” In the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, Jesus states, "The Kingship of Heaven is within you and without you, and any man who knows himself shall find it." This instruction and others by Jesus seem quite explicit – Heaven is not a "place" that man's "soul" travels to after death, nor is it a realm to which only a few are granted entrance after a favorable judgment. The Kingship of Heaven can be accessed IMMINENTLY, and all anyone need do to find it is "know himself."
The teachings of Jesus also seem congruent with the revolutionary idea of a "holographic universe." A hologram is a single entity that is made of many individual units, and within each unit is the essence of the whole. In this analogy, where Jesus states that he can accomplish nothing in the absence of the Father, we might interpret this to mean that God Himself represents the totality of unfallen human consciousness. When Jesus performed miracles, he insisted it was not him doing it, but the Father, yet Jesus told his disciples, "Greater things than these will you do." The message is clearly that God is NOT separate from human beings – in a state of perfect unity and fellowship, all the power in the universe is available to man, and in this condition of empowerment, nothing that the mind can imagine is impossible.
The evidentiary support for these seemingly "unusual" or "extraordinary" concepts exists for anyone with the inclination and discernment to see. The feats of the psychic mind have been anecdotally demonstrated for centuries, and in recent decades, experimentally. Even a cursory examination of the evidence reveals beyond a reasonable doubt that we live in a collective consciousness, damaged and fragmented but still undeniably active. In everyday life, human beings have regular psychic experiences ranging from the profound to the seemingly mundane. Since death is the most psychically traumatizing of all experiences, it's not surprising that many of the most intense psychic intuitions explicitly forewarn of one's own expiration. In fact, many people have been able to accurately predict the precise moment of their deaths, often years in advance.
One of the more jarring demonstrations of this phenomenon was given by NBA star Pistol Pete Maravich who said in a 1974 interview, "I don't want to play 10 years in the NBA and die of a heart attack at age 40." Maravich played pro ball for exactly 10 years and died of a heart attack at age 40 in 1988. In the article "When Death is Prophesied," over a dozen historical accounts were presented of similar fulfilled prophecies among everyday people. (Full story: http://www.rense.com/general58/death.htm)
And the psychic abilities of animals have been demonstrated perhaps even more forcefully than those of humans. No narrow, materialistic view of reality can explain the countless reports of lost animals that traversed hundreds or even thousands of miles to return home to their families, guided only by intuition. Consider this 1971 report of a cat whose 1,600 mile journey finally led her -- bruised paws and all -- to her owners' doorstep:
News Journal, Sunday July 25, 1971, Mansfield, OhioFrom The Family WeeklyThe Love Cats Feel For People...The Journeys Their Love InspiresBy Felica AmesWhat built-in cat radar led Clementine through endless miles of unknown country to the one house and one family in the world she was looking for?How long would it take to walk from Dunkirk, N. Y., to Denver, Col.? A cat named Clementine could tell you. It took her four paw-bruising months to make that 1,600-mile trek. But then, Clementine didn't know the way.When Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lundmark moved from Dunkirk to Denver, they left their pet black cat with neighbors because Clementine was in the family way. Once the litter was weaned, however, Clementine abandoned her brood and hit the road. Four months later an exhausted female cat appeared on the Lundmark's doorstep. There was no doubt it was Clementine, for this amazing animal was unique in another way. She had seven toes on each front paw, two white spots on her stomach and a scar on her left shoulder.
Full story may be read here
Innumerable such accounts are also supported by the research of Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, who has demonstrated the psychic connections between humans and their pets in his book, "Dogs That Know When Their Owners are Coming Home and Other Unexplained Powers of Animals" (see http://www.sheldrake.org).
Many people may accept the existence of psychic phenomena, but the full implications of these abilities have seemingly yet to register. Not only is consciousness not locally limited to the brain, not only is it capable of instantaneous communication with every other mind, it is capable of affecting physical reality in ways we can barely imagine. Consider the research of quantum physicist John Hagelin, Ph.D., who co-authored a study in Washington D.C., which showed a direct correlation between a group's practice of transcendental meditation, and a reduction of crime in their area. (For an overview of this study, see www.istpp.org/crime_prevention).
We must also consider the tangible physical affects that our minds have on our own bodies – such affects are far from merely "theoretical" or "anecdotal." For instance, it is well-documented that hypnotic suggestion alone can lead directly to the formation of visible burn-blisters on human flesh. (See Handbook of Hypnotic Suggestions and Metaphors,
That a human being can mentally burn his own flesh should surprise no one. According to at least one controlled study in the 1960's, the human body produces "electromagnetic radiation phenomena" when consciousness is "in a state of intensed [sic] psychosensory excitation." (See More US Government Psychic Warfare)
At a more profound level, cellular biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton argues in his book "The Biology of Belief" that "our beliefs, true or false, positive or negative, affect genetic activity and actually alter our genetic code." Rather than viewing man as a helpless victim of his inherited genetic structure, Lipton has demonstrated that "genes do not in fact control our behavior, instead, genes are turned on and off by influences outside the cell." At a public presentation in Phoenix, AZ, Dr. Lipton and author Gregg Braden presented a "rare video" of "a baseball-sized tumor" visible on a sonogram shrinking and disappearing as practitioners of a form of Qigong chanted a simple phrase.
Or consider the experience of Michael Crichton while at Harvard U. After a year spent in the coronary wing of the Harvard Medical Center, he began asking the patients why they had their heart attack. Expecting the answer to be along the lines of too much smoking, drinking or bad diet, he was shocked that virtually all of the answers were couched in personal avoidance terms -- one man suggested that he had a heart attack because his wife resented his promotion at work. Another husband said that his wife was going to leave him. These answers indicate that their minds or mindsets had triggered the attacks. In fact, Crichton himself concluded, "We cause our diseases. We are directly responsible for any illness that happens to us."
The smattering of anecdotes listed above is only a bare bone glimpse of the burgeoning and increasingly mainstream fields of psychic, mind/body, and mind over matter research. And of course, not everyone is happy with this development. Self-styled "skeptics" of the so-called paranormal and/or religious/spiritual beliefs insist that it is DANGEROUS for human beings to entertain abilities and phenomena that official science does not yet recognize as real. They can point to endless charlatans and/or self-deceived individuals – psychic mediums, spoon-benders, dowsers, etc. – who make paranormal claims unsupported by facts as proof that the public must be disabused of belief in the “supernatural” for their own good. And "skeptics" can point to "Christian scientists" and other religious devotees who endanger their own lives and the lives of their children by relying on "prayer" (or their interpretation of prayer) as an antidote to sickness and disease. But any person with a genuinely skeptical approach must also consider the dangers of NOT exploring the mind frontier, and all its awesome untapped potentials. Consider the following warning from Colonel Dolan M. McKelvy in the 1988 USAF-funded scientific study, "Psychic Warfare: Exploring the Mind Frontier." In no uncertain terms does the author espouse the need for human beings to recognize the REALITY of the psychic mind’s powers and all its potential uses, both helpful and destructive:
"Man's greatest potential remains a prisoner of man. Vast untapped mental capabilities create an entirely new battlefield dimension which, if ignored, pose a threat to self and country more serious than nuclear weapons. This threat starts from within. Our fears and cynical attitudes towards psychic capabilities make us our own worst enemies…. Exploring the mind frontier is essential and the key to successful exploration is a greater psychic awareness. The mind is rich in unfathomed resources ripe for exploration, a limitless source of treasures for advancing all mankind, and a serious threat to those who ignore its potential. We must overcome our psychic inhibitions, stop denying the existence of paranormal events, and start trying instead to understand the nature of these phenomena….Report
When Jesus implored mankind toward unity and lovingness, he was speaking not only for unity among all human beings, but an INTERNAL unity for each individual. "The Kingship of Heaven is within you and without you, and any man who knows himself shall find it." For centuries, religious dogmatists have persuaded man that he is separate from and inferior to the Father, intrinsically flawed, judged as guilty and sentenced to die. The "enlightenment" of science -- the purported best alternative to murderous dogma -- has failed at resolving man's ultimate helplessness. In order to reach our true psychic, spiritual, human potential, we must have the courage to challenge our own belief systems, to abandon those beliefs that debase man's worth, and to embrace only those that support "the sustenance and enhancement of life." The real "good news" conveyed by Jesus is that we need NOT accept all the tragedies, heartaches, and deprivations that have defined human experience, that we are entitled to receive what every human being wants, the "'IFISEEUS' package of Imminent Fulfillment, Immortality, Safety, Equality, Empowerment, Unity, and Society." Bertrand Russell said, "Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones." According to Jesus, to be satisfied with bad beliefs is to condemn oneself – and all of mankind -- to an existence typified by suffering and ending in death. But Jesus also stated that a way out exists, that "My yoke is pleasant and my burden light." Very few of us have acquired the correct beliefs--if we had the world we live in would be transformed forever. But we can all begin to believe that the truth is friendly and, when properly understood, will never betray us or leave us wanting for anything. Was this the choice Jesus offered mankind during his time on Earth? Roughly 2,000 years later, does all the Universe still wait for us to finally choose correctly?
For more complete background on the statements of Jesus concerning life see Life Verses
Michael Goodspeed is a freelance journalist who lives in Portland, Oregon. His e-book "Is the Universe Electric?' is available from Mikamar Publishing (http://www.mikamar.biz/thunderbolts-product.htm)

Michael Moore defends and supports Obama!!!

Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an Academy Award-winning American filmmaker, author, and liberal political commentator. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, and Bowling for Columbine, three of the top five highest-grossing documentaries of all time. He has also written and starred in the TV shows TV Nation and The Awful Truth, both of which continue his trademark style of presenting serious documentaries in humorous ways.
Moore is a self-described liberal[5] who has criticized globalization, large corporations, gun ownership, the Iraq War, U.S. President George W. Bush and the American health care system in his written and cinematic works. In 2005 Time magazine named him one of the world's 100 most influential people.

Please read the following from Michael Moore's blog:

Monday, April 21st, 2008

My Vote's for Obama (if I could vote) ...by Michael Moore

Friends,

I don't get to vote for President this primary season. I live in Michigan. The party leaders (both here and in D.C.) couldn't get their act together, and thus our votes will not be counted.
So, if you live in Pennsylvania, can you do me a favor? Will you please cast my vote -- and yours -- on Tuesday for Senator Barack Obama?

I haven't spoken publicly 'til now as to who I would vote for, primarily for two reasons: 1) Who cares?; and 2) I (and most people I know) don't give a rat's ass whose name is on the ballot in November, as long as there's a picture of JFK and FDR riding a donkey at the top of the ballot, and the word "Democratic" next to the candidate's name.

Seriously, I know so many people who don't care if the name under the Big "D" is Dancer, Prancer, Clinton or Blitzen. It can be Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Barry Obama or the Dalai Lama.

Well, that sounded good last year, but over the past two months, the actions and words of Hillary Clinton have gone from being merely disappointing to downright disgusting. I guess the debate last week was the final straw. I've watched Senator Clinton and her husband play this game of appealing to the worst side of white people, but last Wednesday, when she hurled the name "Farrakhan" out of nowhere, well that's when the silly season came to an early end for me. She said the "F" word to scare white people, pure and simple. Of course, Obama has no connection to Farrakhan. But, according to Senator Clinton, Obama's pastor does -- AND the "church bulletin" once included a Los Angeles Times op-ed from some guy with Hamas! No, not the church bulletin!

This sleazy attempt to smear Obama was brilliantly explained the following night by Stephen Colbert. He pointed out that if Obama is supported by Ted Kennedy, who is Catholic, and the Catholic Church is led by a Pope who was in the Hitler Youth, that can mean only one thing: OBAMA LOVES HITLER!

Yes, Senator Clinton, that's how you sounded. Like you were nuts. Like you were a bigot stoking the fires of stupidity. How sad that I would ever have to write those words about you. You have devoted your life to good causes and good deeds. And now to throw it all away for an office you can't win unless you smear the black man so much that the superdelegates cry "Uncle (Tom)" and give it all to you.

But that can't happen. You cast your die when you voted to start this bloody war. When you did that you were like Moses who lost it for a moment and, because of that, was prohibited from entering the Promised Land.

How sad for a country that wanted to see the first woman elected to the White House. That day will come -- but it won't be you. We'll have to wait for the current Democratic governor of Kansas to run in 2016 (you read it here first!).

There are those who say Obama isn't ready, or he's voted wrong on this or that. But that's looking at the trees and not the forest. What we are witnessing is not just a candidate but a profound, massive public movement for change. My endorsement is more for Obama The Movement than it is for Obama the candidate.

That is not to take anything away from this exceptional man. But what's going on is bigger than him at this point, and that's a good thing for the country. Because, when he wins in November, that Obama Movement is going to have to stay alert and active. Corporate America is not going to give up their hold on our government just because we say so. President Obama is going to need a nation of millions to stand behind him.

I know some of you will say, 'Mike, what have the Democrats done to deserve our vote?' That's a damn good question. In November of '06, the country loudly sent a message that we wanted the war to end. Yet the Democrats have done nothing. So why should we be so eager to line up happily behind them?

I'll tell you why. Because I can't stand one more friggin' minute of this administration and the permanent, irreversible damage it has done to our people and to this world. I'm almost at the point where I don't care if the Democrats don't have a backbone or a kneebone or a thought in their dizzy little heads. Just as long as their name ain't "Bush" and the word "Republican" is not beside theirs on the ballot, then that's good enough for me.

I, like the majority of Americans, have been pummeled senseless for 8 long years. That's why I will join millions of citizens and stagger into the voting booth come November, like a boxer in the 12th round, all bloodied and bruised with one eye swollen shut, looking for the only thing that matters -- that big "D" on the ballot.

Don't get me wrong. I lost my rose-colored glasses a long time ago.
It's foolish to see the Democrats as anything but a nicer version of a party that exists to do the bidding of the corporate elite in this country. Any endorsement of a Democrat must be done with this acknowledgement and a hope that one day we will have a party that'll represent the people first, and laws that allow that party an equal voice.

Finally, I want to say a word about the basic decency I have seen in Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton continues to throw the Rev. Wright up in his face as part of her mission to keep stoking the fears of White America. Every time she does this I shout at the TV, "Say it, Obama! Say that when she and her husband were having marital difficulties regarding Monica Lewinsky, who did she and Bill bring to the White House for 'spiritual counseling?' THE REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT!"

But no, Obama won't throw that at her. It wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be decent. She's been through enough hurt. And so he remains silent and takes the mud she throws in his face.
That's why the crowds who come to see him are so large. That's why he'll take us down a more decent path. That's why I would vote for him if Michigan were allowed to have an election.
But the question I keep hearing is... 'can he win? Can he win in November?' In the distance we hear the siren of the death train called the Straight Talk Express. We know it's possible to hear the words "President McCain" on January 20th. We know there are still many Americans who will never vote for a black man. Hillary knows it, too. She's counting on it.

Pennsylvania, the state that gave birth to this great country, has a chance to set things right. It has not had a moment to shine like this since 1787 when our Constitution was written there. In that Constitution, they wrote that a black man or woman was only "three fifths" human. On

Tuesday, the good people of Pennsylvania have a chance for redemption.

Yours,Michael Moore

MichaelMoore.comMMFlint@aol.com