Marjoe

I watched the movie Marjoe (1972) tonight. I strongly recommend you invest the 80 minutes to watch this documentary. Marjoe says that religion is a business and religion is a drug. So, so true.

Corporate Raping 101

Class time, kiddies.

I remain puzzled why the Tea Partiers are so determined to leave Big Business alone. They use code words like "limited government" and "free enterprise."

Well, let me tell ya ... See, the rich have been in power for a LONG time and they have figured out how to stay rich. They don't really care what political party is in power, since the Republicans and Democrats are about the same. Both parties know who their masters are.

Social services

There is continual screaming about helping poor people, yet hardly a whimper when it comes to corporate welfare. Actually, corporate America is in control of the welfare state. They want to provide just enough services to avoid civil unrest. Corporate America needs stable markets and stable consumers.

Taxing the Rich

It amazes me how middle class white folks are so protective of the wealthy. After all, many people got wealthy by paying the under classes crappy wages or else exporting their jobs overseas.

Corporate Subsidies

Corporations get tax breaks, incentives, and other government gifts. Agri-business receives millions in welfare. This money could be better spent by giving it directly to the people.

The Power Structure

The people in power want us common folks to fight one another. This keeps the underclass from focusing on the real enemy -- multinational corporations. Everything in the world is designed to serve them, particularly governments. NAFTA, the IMF, World Bank, and Federal Reserve are all big scams designed to keep the rich people rich and the poor people poor.

The System

Sooner or later you will see that the entire system is designed to work against you. It is insane that states are in the lottery business -- this is a way to screw the downtrodden who gamble their last dollars for a lucky break. In the end, they are more downtrodden.

The IRS is designed to screw the middle class. It collects money to provide wealth redistribution. The poor are given benefits to keep them from rioting and stealing. The rich are given tax breaks and subsidies to, well, keep them rich. Most of your money is spent on endless wars, and on occasion, the bailout of worthless companies that are better off closed.

The IRS tax code is so complex that you must either buy third-party software to do your taxes or hire a professional tax preparer. This is horrible, yet we the people accept this racket.

Cheap credit is another trap to enslave you. The evil Federal Reserve will lower interest rates to release credit, so that the economy can grow. Why do they want the economy to grow? So that the fat cats at the top can get fatter.

If you are a lower class citizen the system is totally geared toward keeping you in the dirt. You get your hope from lottery tickets. If you are middle class, you are given just enough hope to keep you working. And by the way, most of us are slaves to large corporations.

Tea Party ... Yeah, PARTY!!!

Like religion, the Tea Party Patriots are yet another wonderful tool that has fallen into the hands of the Corporate Masters. They did not have to create the movement. Rather, they created all the lies in our culture that make people feel truly American when they scream "free enterprise" and "limited government." It is so nice of the Patriots to do the bidding of the Masters — Sarah Palin and her ilk have all been programmed well.

AND ....

It's embedded in us to think of Karl Marx as a bad person, but when you study his work you'll find that he wasn't such a bad guy at all. He observed the class struggles around him and figured it out. Karl Marx was right -- capitalism is unsustainable and will surely fail.

Scared To Heaven

I'm just a little girl - please don't scare me.

At age 8 I became a "born again Christian" simply because I was scared shitless. It was during revival week at church and the evangelist told us how horrible it will be if you are left behind during the tribulation.

Well, that evening I'm in the back seat of the car crying because I'm totally freaked out, and my parents ran and got the preacher. He sat with me in the back of the car and asked me all the "get saved" questions, and I quickly answered "YES" because I did not want Christ to leave me behind. He got out of the car and said to my anxiously waiting parents, "I think he's saved." Holy jeepers, was I ever relieved.

I now believe that religious indoctrination is a form of child abuse.

Backyard Bible Clubs

In the mid 1990s I was a church leader and every summer I had a backyard Bible club in my home (similar to vacation Bible school). Teenagers, serving as summer missionaries, would actually come and do all the work — I only had to house them and provide a place to meet.

The clubs were popular and nearly every child in the neighborhood attended (the parents were grateful for the break). One evening, I heard the kids start asking questions about angels, demons, Heaven and Hell. I was quite concerned because I knew where the conversation was going. They all got scared and wanted to get saved. When news got back to the pastor he was thrilled that six kids "got saved." Out of the several backyard clubs, I had the most "saves" that year -- hurray!

The next week the pastor told me it was time for follow-up. He said we had to visit my neighbors and tell them that their kids got saved, and then we had to try and save the parents. Now, I bet FEW Christians have actually knocked on their neighbor's doors and told them about Christ -- rather, most people simply "play Christian" because it's a culturally cool thing to do. But there I was, with my pastor, trying to tell my pagan neighbors about Jesus. I think I freaked a few out.

I now believe that religious indoctrination is a form of child abuse.

The Scared Little Girl

During another year it was play time during the Bible club and kids were running all over my yard. A couple of boys came up to me and said there was a little girl in the backyard "who wants to be saved." Yikes, this put me in a difficult position because I really didn't want to "save" anyone. I felt it was a huge responsibility to save someone's child from "eternal damnation." What if I screwed up and got the questions wrong?

I went in the backyard and found a pretty little girl crying; I'm guessing she was eight. I had no idea who the child was -- she was apparently the cousin of some of the church kids. This put me in a bind because who am I to go around saving little kids, but then again I was a church leader so I guess I was supposed to do this kind of stuff. So, I went to the girl, asked her the magic three questions, and prayed with her. And then I said, "You're saved - now go play with the other kids," and sure enough she did. I did not want to "save" her. I had helped save a few friends and a cousin in my life, but that's about it. I really thought it was strange that all you had to do was say the magic three sentence prayer and "poof" you go to heaven, and if you don't you are tortured for trillions of years in hell. I mean, that's a no-brainer. And when you think about it, Christianity is truly a screwed up, illogical, and bizarre religion.

I know regret "saving" the kid -- I should have called the pastor and let him deal with it. I can't remember if I ever even reported it -- I think I just let it go. The little girl would now be 22-years-old. I hope she turned out okay -- I hope I didn't mess her up mentally.

I now believe that religious indoctrination of children is a form of child abuse. Teaching children that they are sinful, worthless, and in need of redemption is a horrible thing to do.

SHAME on everyone that tries to force religion on children. At least let them grow up to make their own decision. If they want to snort the white Jesus powder, at least give them that choice. If you are so sure your religion is "right" and "truth" you don't need to brainwash them as youth. Let them be free, PLEASE let the children be free.

Goose

Immigration

Fact: Immigrants come to the U.S. for a better life. They accept jobs that no yuppie American teen would ever touch. They are paid crap and must often work several jobs just to survive. Fact: Immigrants keep prices down on consumer goods. Fact: There are far too many people in the world and consumerism is out of control. This is a global problem, and we must all work together to solve it.

The Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Sierra Club has a great population discussion list, which I've been a part of for about 11 years. Here is my response to a recent discussion on immigration:

Esteemed Colleagues,

Humans have always been migratory animals. We are on the move not only for better game, but because we are inherently greedy.

In a normal situation, inflows to the U.S. should equal outflows.

But something is wrong on our planet, and there is a mad rush to enter the United States. A long-time member of our population group once told me, "I was in the Navy and traveled the world. Wherever I went people always said they wanted to come here."

The quick solution is to create a Fortress America -- keep the poor, desperate people out so that we can enjoy our comfortable lives. But artificial barriers are always temporary and soon fail (i.e. Berlin Wall).

Fred shared a wonderful population video yesterday where the speaker, Hans Rosling, says that if we eliminate poverty, population growth will naturally decrease. Of course, in the meantime, the inhabitants are caught in a hopeless loop -- their exploding population makes it impossible to crawl out of poverty.

Karen replied that it is not necessary to eliminate poverty to lower birthrates, and gives Bangladesh as an example. She says we should focus on lowering birthrates, which will result in less poverty.

When I traveled to Ecuador, I saw that just handing out contraceptives was ineffective because of trust issues (some city slicker comes to my village and invades a very personal part of my life, no sir). Rather, in Ecuador, we saw that the best solution was to provide BOTH -- the program we studied taught villagers how to improve their lives with better agriculture and small industries -- and family planning and environmental protection were hemmed into the overall message. This comprehensive approach built TRUST and strong relationships with the aid workers, so that when it came time to discuss family planning the residents didn't become defensive. This was BEAUTIFUL!!!

So, how can we get this program to the rest of Latin America, Africa, India, and in other high growth spots? I have a simple solution -- the world spends trillions of dollars on armaments. Let's all agree to downsize our military forces and use the surplus for comprehensive poverty eradication.

And why we are eradicating, let's get religion off the planet. While religion gave us an evolutionary advantage in the early days, it has now outlived its usefulness, and now lingers on as a destructive and parasitic organism that has become the bane of humanity. Enough people have died in the name of some god. But worse yet, religion is obsessed with sexual behavior, and the religious, pro-natal mores pushed on societies create yet another downward loop -- the high birthrates cause local social and environmental deterioration, which makes people more religious as they cry out to their god for help.

I can tell you that the four greatest environmentalists in the world are the Four Horsemen of Atheism - Richard Dawkins, Daniel C. Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens. These men have brought the absurdity of religion into the mainstream and they have created a great dialogue -- this is a great step in saving our planet.

In the meantime, back to the millions of people slipping through our porous borders.

First, the federal government is totally inept, as witnessed by Katrina, the mortgage disaster, and the BP oil spill, etc. Our impotent government can't even stop illegal immigration, and you want them to do something about LEGAL immigration? That has me laughing.

Second, there is a huge economic demand for basic labor. Here in Georgia, immigrants are used in the poultry, agriculture, and carpet industries, and we all benefit from this cheap labor. Where I live, the high school graduates get jobs working in malls. Our country has grown soft and I can't imagine any teenager around here working in a meat processing plant or picking onions in a field -- they wouldn't last a day. So, if we are going to kick out the immigrants we need a solution for our bottom-rung labor needs. One solution is to require college students to work summers at a farm or plant, something like the Israeli model.

Third, the foreign-born lobby has already become too powerful. Taking a strong stand on limiting immigration is instant death for any politician.

My own personal opinion is that it's ALWAYS a step backwards to build walls. Walls are all about division, which encourage inequities and hatred. Every person on this planet is my brother and sister, and it is morally wrong to create artificial islands of prosperity in a sea of squalor. I do not acknowledge the term "illegal immigrants" because I do not believe in borders. North America should follow the European Union model -- it will be a hard and rocky hill to climb, but it is essential for long-term sustainability and peace.

Don't be naive and think that your government is going to close the borders -- it will never happen. Instead, let's all think of some creative, out-of-the-box solutions to the very real problem of massive population growth.

Respectfully,

Goose

Religion: Control Until the Bitter End

Unfortunately, the guys don't get treated the same way as the girls.
Of course, religions are created by MEN, so no surprise.

I keep thinking about how humans are "hard wired" and how most of us simply follow the script given to us at birth. Most people never question their culture — they just faithfully play their role until they croak.

Religions are an interesting quirk of our evolution. They have safety mechanisms built in to protect themselves. One of these mechanisms is to stifle any form of questioning. If you are born into a Hindu, Muslim, or Christian home you will likely just take the movie script you are handed and play your role throughout life. If you question your script, you will be shunned at the very least and executed at the worst.

At least Christians look at the murder, mayhem, and perversion of the Old Testament and say, "Oh, that was then. We don't do that anymore." But Muslims and Hindus are still brazen enough to enforce antiquated and inhumane traditions. With Muslims, Sharia laws are evil and disgusting, and are an affront to women and humanity as a whole. They should be eliminated at once. And for Hindus, the caste system is pathetic and should be dismantled immediately.

As for Christians, well, that's a sensitive issue because they insist that they are the "right" religion. Indeed, Christianity is more mature now and the Great Crusades and Spanish Inquisition are behind us. But we still have religious leaders telling people not to wear condoms and extremists trying to ban stem cell research.

Though not as overtly violent, Christianity remains an insidious, destructive force on our Planet. The greatest damage Christianity does is give people an "out." Whatever happens in the world around them, Christians don't have to take responsibility or action. Rather, they can just say, "It's all a part of God's plan." Christianity has done some good and a lot of bad, and the worst "bad" it has done is make millions of people indifferent to the environmental and social ills around them. Hell, they don't even have to take responsibility for their own actions, since Christ died for their sins. That is the power of "grace," and all you have to do is "accept" that, and have faith, and up to heaven you go. Hurray!

And as the religious followers play their self-consuming roles, the world around them continues to go to hell. But, again, they don't care because they are going to heaven.

"Experience has taught me that most people are driven by emotion, and then may use logic to justify whatever they find emotionally most comfortable."

— Brooke, a colleague

"Unfortunately, I suspect that we have selected for a predisposition for religious beliefs. In a tribal society such beliefs tend to foster group cohesion."

– Fred, a colleague

"… Here, evolution had hit on the sweetest of solutions. Such perceptions were guaranteed to produce a faith-dependent species that believed itself to be thoroughly separate from the rest of the animal kingdom, but followed its genetic instructions to the letter—and left more offspring as a consequence. Here was a gene-driven animal just like any other, yet one that believed itself to be under special guidance—guidance that was not merely ‘spiritual’, but in most instances ‘divine’. Here was a wonderfully practical insanity, an invincible, hereditary madness that eventually enabled this under-endowed ‘paragon of animals’ to devour the planet like a ripe fruit. "

— Rex Morrison, author of The Spirit in the Gene

Saving My Planetary Home

In 1997 I decided to get back into environmental activism. With my limited volunteer time, I thought, "What is the one issue that will have the maximum impact on saving the Planet."

The answer was a no-brainer: I would work on the issue that is behind MOST of our social, political, economic, and environmental problems -- human population growth. Little did I know I was taking on the most complex and controversial issue, where logic is thrown out the window and replaced by bizarre ideas and attitudes.

After 13 years, I have concluded the following: Addressing the population explosion is easy and has a simple solution, but there is so much baggage surrounding it that any positive effort will probably fail. But maybe not because the solutions are based on "what is right" and in the end, what is morally just will prevail.

Having studied population for years and having given it much deep thought, here is what I consider the foundations for a solution:

First Tenet

All women must be treated 100% equal to men, with no exceptions. If you are a women, don't let some religion trick you into accepting anything less. If you are a man, get over your insecurity. Since the 1970s mass progress has been made toward equality in the Western world -- I applaud that. But in the less developed world, which is where the massive population growth is occurring, women are rarely treated as equals. Customs, laws, and religions that treat a woman less than equal must ALWAYS be challenged.

Second Tenet

The cult of materialism must die. Whenever population is addressed, consumption must be addressed as well – both impact the Earth. I guess for several million years we humans had nothing, so now that we have access to "things" we are hording. The problem is that we keep wanting MORE "things," and nicer things, and bigger things, and it becomes an addiction. And people tell me that if we don't keep buying more crap it will hurt the economy. Well, perhaps we should all learn to live with less!

Conclusion

And that's it ... problem solved. If women are treated equally that means they will have the CHOICE to pursue a career or a CHOICE to NOT have children. Just the equality mechanism alone would greatly lower population. And if we could get our satisfaction from other means, instead of materialism, then the impact on Earth would be greatly lightened. You don't NEED a McMansion, fancy new car, a boat, and rooms full of new crap. It's all meaningless.

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Oh, and in case you don't know - world population is nearly 7 billion. When I was born in 1960 population was 3.02 billion. Needless to say, a species that can double its numbers so quickly will have a devastating impact on its habitat. Right now we are seeing exploding human population destroy our planet -- not in any one obvious way, but rather in many little ways. This is what a friend of mine calls, "A death by a thousand cuts."