Blasphemy in Ireland Now Punishable Under Law
Holy shit.
I thought this was a joke or someone taking a recent The Onion article seriously again. Sadly, it’s not. There are far more details about the blasphemy law than I could get into right because that would involve a lot of copying and pasting. Plus it’s 2:00AM.
Blasphemy law is silly, dangerous and unjust
It really does seem dangerous and overwhelming. Punishable by a fine up to 25,000-Euros? That’s about $35,000 USD. Imagine being hit with a fine like that because someone either had completely different religious convictions and beliefs or simply does not believe in a supernatural being.
A lot of religious folk might cheer at this law, but this really could, and will, be used against them as well as the atheist of the land. It’s not a double edged sword as there will be no real “winners” as a result of this new law except those delicious coffers receiving the cash for these hefty fines.
∙ Atheists can be prosecuted for saying that God is imaginary. That causes outrage.
∙ Pagans can be prosecuted for saying they left Christianity because God is violent and bloodthirsty, promotes genocide, and permits slavery.
∙ Christians can be prosecuted for saying that Allah is a moon god, or for drawing a picture of Mohammed, or for saying that Islam is a violent religion which breeds terrorists.
∙ Jews can be prosecuted for saying Jesus isn’t the Messiah.
Ireland Makes Blasphemy Illegal – Above bullet list lifted from here.
It does a good job condensing the crafty language for everyone to understand. This is both dangerous and ridiculous for everyone. This goes beyond insulting any freedom of speech people might have. This goes against freedom of religion and many other rights we thought we had at one point or took for granted.
I, for one, will be ten times as blasphemous as usual in support for all those atheist boys and girls panicking in Ireland because they own a book that is undoubtedly illegal to possess now. If the government looked over a curious reader’s recent books checked out from the library, would they find anything worth fining? If someone checked out the popular book “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins, a warrant and a fine could be waiting for them at their front door.
I’m curious if this also means if a young man or woman is watching a blasphemous episode of South Park a little too loud with the windows open and offends their neighbors. Could the neighbors call the cops and have this person fined for watching a television show in which they have no creative attachment? This supposed hypothetical scenario does seem like a reality, sadly.
I will talk out loud to whatever imaginary supernatural being that only exists within our own collective imagination any reader might worship that this kind of law doesn’t spread.
I hope Jim Jeffries had no plans for touring Ireland any time soon with his I Swear to God material.
The American Double Standard
A total of 225 people serving under the Reagan administration either quit, were fired, arrested, indicted, or convicted for breaking the law or violating the ethics code. This included the Attorney General.
There were several controversies during this time involving the administration. The Iran-Contra affair is typically the most well known. This was a plan where weapons were sold to Iran and the profits were diverted to fund the Nicaraguan Contras, in violation of U.S. and international law.
What else is a violation of U.S., international law, and human rights? Torture. In 1984, the UN adopted the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading or Punishment.
Every act of torture is a crime under international law. If torture is committed in an armed conflict, it constitutes the war crime of torture. There are absolutely no exceptions to the prohibition against torture. The President of the United States, or anyone else in the administration or Congress, cannot override the law against torture by any means.
Mr. President, are you trying to say that on grounds of starting a war without reason except that God told him to do so and allowing torture on detainees from around the world is not enough to prosecute the administration responsible? George Bush Jr. and Dick Cheney need to be prosecuted as war criminals.
Ubi Dubium ibi Libertas: Where There is Doubt, There is Freedom
Obama has overturned the ban on stem cell research. This is exactly what we need in charge. This is exactly what we want in charge, even though many people believe this is to be the wrong action. Sadly, these people are wrong. Religion is the root of what’s wrong in the world; stem cell research and abortions for everyone will not devalue human life. Religion has devalued enough of the lives of our ancestors and countless generations to come.
This is exactly what we need, even if we say otherwise. No more Christian fundamentalist mucking things up in our country. Their finger on the red button believing nuclear war is the second coming of Christ. The Rapture. Even though the term Rapture is no where in the Bible, along with immaculate conception and Original Sin, people perceive these terms as facts.
They see the bible as a true account of history. Ridiculous! We can’t run a country on a dated book of lies. We can’t create laws in this country based on a book of immorality, slavery, bigotry, genocide, torture, child murder, incest, rape, and racism. It’s insanity to think that we need ancient text to give us morals. Human beings naturally know right from wrong, meaning that those who pretend to be good simply because they want to get into heaven are no better than the so called sinners they persecute.
Religion, by its very nature, breeds ignorance and intolerance. It divides people that should otherwise be accepting each other. Well, in a semi-perfect world. If not by religion, division would exist by skin color, height, and in Japan currently, blood type.
In Japan, you are what your blood type is.
It’s all about geography. These same people that are heavily Christian, usually belonging to one church out of the 1,200 denominations of Christianity present in this country, would be Islam, or Islamic fundamentalist, if they were born in a different country. Not just Islam, but any religion predominant in that region. It’s childhood indoctrination. Think about it.
I merely use the Islam faith as an example because of the bigotry surrounding the religion and causing it to be synonymous with terrorism. If the average person knew that the Middle East had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11, I would hope the diseased state of minds would dissolve into peace. Just ten days after the events of 9-11, the FBI admitted that the IDs used by the perpetrators were high-quality fakes using identities stolen from Arab men.
In years to come, the rest of the country will find out about the arms dealing the Bush administration, not the first Bush as we already know about his trading with the enemy, and Cheney had with the Middle East for many years. It’s what we do. Arm a smaller country then invade them citing that they have amazing weapons. Banning abortion and stem cell research wasn’t a moral decision, it was a political stand for the bible belt support. It’s what every presidential candidate and president-elect wishes to hold dear to their campaign and office.
The blind sheep of the herds around the country only noticed what they believed in as the culmination of the Bush presidency. Ignore the fact that so many innocent Muslims have perished for absolutely no reason and ignore the fact that the Bush administration was run by sociopath war criminals.
Though, this kind of involvement seems to be normal. Be it by dumping millions of gallons of dangerous chemicals on the Southeast Asia countryside for 10 years in the Vietnam War or the Indian Removal Act of 1830 by President Jackson. Ethnic cleansing. We believe that we are what’s right in this world.
While passing a twenty dollar bill, look the other way. What would be the reaction of the Jews if Hitler was printed on legal currency? A genocide, no matter the rationale or justification, is still genocide. It happens to this very day either over resources or religion. Typically, religion is an excuse to wage war, but it usually falls on what the enemy either needs or desires. There is no new land to conquer, only what is already owned by the natives of the land or the rightful owners. That and fossil fuels.
Majority of people that know very little about World War II believe that our involvement in the war kick started our return globally as an economic powerhouse. They think that by jumping into a fray late, dropping a few bombs, and ignoring the cries of thousands of Jews being told that they will not be given asylum can cause the economy to inflate. War does not stimulate the economy, it’s a flash in the pan stimulation. It was all about war profiteering. It’s about money.
The same could be said about the war on drugs. Innocent people guilty only of an addiction are thrown into prisons while tax money is wasted on keeping them alive, clothed, and fed. These people are not given a second chance, they are not being rehabilitated. They are being tortured in an environment not suitable for their sickness. Would we throw an alcoholic in jail? Even if the person has done absolutely nothing wrong. Simply by being addicted to booze.
Why is that such a ridiculous idea when marijuana has many medical uses and hemp has hundreds of uses that could compete with most modern material, such as clothing and paper, while alcohol has absolutely none?
The war on drugs is a war on people. People’s rights are being violated and this crime against humanity needs to end.
The war on terrorism is a war on people. People’s rights are being violated and this crime against humanity needs to end.
“Natural selection builds child brains with a tendency to believe whatever their parents and tribal elders tell them. Such trusting obedience is valuable for survival: the analogue of steering by the moon for a moth. But the flip side of trusting obedience is slavish gullibility. The inevitable by-product is vulnerability to infection by mind viruses.” – Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
“Creationists eagerly seek a gap in present-day knowledge or understanding. If an apparent gap is found, it is assumed that God, by default, must fill it.” – Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
Dear McCain
John McCain, you’ve called the new stimulus package generational theft. Even though you’ve voted for a $700 billion package when G. W. proposed it to bail out crooked Wall Street bankers and corrupt corporations. You stopped your campaign to fly to D.C. to throw in your vote, but when it comes to saving our country from eating itself alive and also to try to create thousands of jobs, you you call it generational theft. John, what would you know about Generational Theft?
Well, you may have an idea from experience yourself, Mr. McCain. Do you remember that you were part of a scandal in the late 80s that cost the tax payers of this country hundreds of billions of dollars? Adjusted for inflation, $500 billion in 1989 becomes over $830 billion in 2009. Generational Theft? Several generations after me will have to worry about paying for that and a war that you supported that solved no global issues, settled no debts, and resolved no conflicts.
You will support a debt driving war machine and support a bill that gave corporate fat cats billions of bailout money, but when it comes to investing in America’s infrastructure, you hesitate. Why? You’ve contradicted yourself over the last few weeks in regards to how you feel about tax cuts and the Obama package. Your own stimulus plan is nothing but tax cuts. Tax cuts do not work, that was obvious decades ago. Good riddance to trickle-down economics and pseudo-Reaganesque politicians.
Reagan was an idiot and to think that Bush tried to rub what greatness people saw in him from his coffin is beyond dumb. It is also beyond dumb that we have been calling McCain the second coming of Reagan for over 9 years now. Why? Because he contradicts himself constantly, could care less about popular opinion, and wants to rob the middle class while giving it to the rich in hopes it will magically float back down to us?
Isn’t it odd how the Democrats and Republicans completely reversed their views with each over the last fifty years? Except instead of a complete criss-cross, the Democrats became celebrities and the Republicans became old, rich white senile men.
Perhaps the next presidential race, which the good people of Wasilla, AK think begins in 2010 according to their massive Google search trends, will not be nearly as exciting as the 2008 election, but let’s hold out a little hope that the campaign won’t be based solely upon saving our economy once again.
The War on Drugs is a War on People
The war on drugs is a war on people and peoples rights are being violated and you’re incarcerating and caging human beings often times who have are simply victims of the sickness of addiction, who have become sucked up in this giant war on drugs, which in fact is a crime against humanity.
The war on drugs is a war on people.
Innocents are being terrorized by law enforcement is almost news worthy. This happens more than most could ever believe, but this story made national headlines because it was a mayor with connections. People cared for once.
When a 12 year old girl is beaten about the face and throat after she cries out for her father because men are taking her by force calling her a prostitute, even though the description was for white adult women soliciting, the police still do not apologize or admit that they were wrong.
Police Get The Wrong House In Galveston, Allegedly Assault 12-Year-Old Girl
These are two stories that made headlines, but are just a droplet in the sea of the suffering of the innocents by the hands of those sworn to protect and to serve.
Know your rights. Know that they no longer matter. Now it’s even easier for an officer of the law to get away from controversy after making a terrible mistake.
Justice System. Is there justice in the system? Or is it just us in the system?
How No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 Screwed Next Gen
It’s obvious that the first horror of NCLB is that schools begin to look at kids as a statistic instead of caring if they actually learn, as long as they test well. Though, there are errors in the schools way of thinking that make them think that if a child doesn’t test well, but still passes, the average test score will drop. Because of this, kids are being hassled and put under a phenomenal amount of stress at an early age. So much for being a kid these days, right?
Now, that is definitely not the worst aspect of this atrocious act. There are many statistics and articles how the NCLB Act fails minorities by increasing the margin between whites and minorities. Not only that, but how are failing schools supposed to progress if their funding is cut by a ridiculous amount? Schools that are already failing from overcrowded classes because of a lack of teachers and new books are being punished enough as it is, they do not need further financial cuts.
Though, perhaps the most devastating section of the No Child Left Behind Act is the provision that grants the Pentagon direct access to public school records. These records contain all student information to allow contact for military recruitment. This is a big change from the rights students used to have prior to Bush Jr. Just like Big Tobacco, the Pentagon’s motto is “Get’em While They’re Young”.
Obama has more to do than most people can imagine. McCain would have continued a lot of these constitutional breaking laws, acts, and provisions either out of laziness or the fact he does not care about the rights and well being of the general public.
Now for the inevitable Bush Family related scam regarding the No Child Left Behind Act! The Bush family benefits directly for NCLB! Neil Bush started a company that provides software to help students take standardized tests. Ignite, Inc. wanted 30 dollars-per-year-per-student for its software for this deal, netting 60 million dollars. “Having one brother selling something to help students on a test spearheaded by another brother and sanctioned by the president doesn’t look good.”
Ultimate Patriotism Against Short Lived Terrorism
A blog about the War on Terror (wasteful and irresponsible similar to the War on Drugs), Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John McCain, and other topics concerning this great country. Please click Read More below and watch as this excerpt magically vanishes.
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Big Band-Aid Bailout for the Big Three’s Bleeding Bruises
Hooray, the Big Three might receive their $25 billion bailout after much groveling and misunderstanding how flying in a private jet billing their own company $20,000 might seem a bit elaborate considering they are supposed to be scraping by these days.
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World Finds Peace, Understanding, Reasoning in Black Man
My feelings and thoughts on president-elect Barack Obama and the future the country’s decision may reveal itself come January.
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Economically Irresponsible
A comparison of the tenures of George W. Bush Jr. and Bill Clinton. Just a few facts, actually.
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