Sunday, February 24, 2013

Delight



Others,
There is delight in discovery.
A couple set out to plant a garden on a headland of the Orkney Islands in 2003. They found a stone slab.
Call in the archaeologists! This is better than Nessie! This discovery will change the face of knowledge regarding life in northern Europe!
Archaeologists found a polished stone axe, stone mace-heads, grooved pottery and painted walls in a complex of walled ceremonial structures with a scale and complexity that had not been seen in Scotland.
Ness of Brodgar
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/jan-june13/scotland_02-20.html
"The Ness of Brodgar is kind of an archaeologist's dream site. What we have is a complex of structures the like of which we have never really seen before in Atlantic Europe, buildings of scale and complexity and architecture completely enclosed within this massive walled enclosure. It's just spectacular."
There is evidence of a large animal sacrifice. The complex had been in operation for a thousand years. Then, there was one large celebration before it was filled in with dirt. What happened? The Bronze Age started. The new technology presented a shift in emphasis from the community to the individual. Perhaps they were in too big a hurry to discard the security of community for the urgent fury of metal weapons.
Delight
Fm Ps27, Luke 13, Phil3, Gen15
Blessed are you who come in the name of the LORD.
We are citizens with Christ who delivers us
from cruelty, war and oppression.
The light of God’s love leads us to salvation.
Seek the face of delight each day.
The sun will show you the life of your inheritance.
The stars will bless you with the number in your family.
Our citizenship celebrates truth with justice in love.
Sacrifice celebrates provision.
It provides recourse
to resource enjoyment
for the satisfaction
of basic needs.
Happiness is the strength of faith.
When I have been loved
of whom will I be afraid?
When the homicidal seeks
to oppress with fear,
It is he who will be called to recall
the joy of forgiveness;
the evidence of progression
in reconciliation.

When the suicidal seeks
to control with desperation,
it is he who will be called to recall
the beauty of living life.
When the industry for war tries to cry
for more, the enterprise of security,
will rise to claim the prize
to bless the skies
with the rule of liberty
in the law with truth
and justice for all.
Civil rights cannot be used
to harm justice in the world.
The representation of human rights
is the purpose for national constitution
in international community.
Alliance is not limited to the past.
It is an expansion that seeks to welcome all
to the celebration of humanity.
For one thing have I asked.
I will seek this thing as long as I live.
I wish to dwell in the house of faith.
I desire to behold
the beauty of communion
in the community of love.
This will protect me in the day of trouble.
This will keep me hidden for security.
City of peace.
You had killed the prophets as martyrs.
They had testified for truth.
They bore witness for the security
of remembering the poor.
 You will come to believe
in the goodness of living life
as a gift of grace.
Blessed are you who come
in the name of the LORD.  
You will dwell in the light
of love for salvation.
=================
Lyndon Johnson had used the assassination of President Kennedy to accomplish a dramatic transformation. While there was concession to the escalation of troops in Viet Nam, there was also a radical promotion of civil rights to make the US a great society.
Ronald Reagan helped to turn the nation in a different direction with the institution of trickle down or supply side economics, wealthy industrialists were given an advantage to promote private industry. Loopholes had been developed to avoid the rigors of taxation for the great society. Tax breaks were added for individuals and corporations to develop international commerce.
An international oligarchy was formed. The oligarchy has come to wield a degree of power that has sought to eclipse the significance of constitutional democracy with their claim to absolute power. It is running the western coalition. It was responsible for the invasions of two independent nations; not because it is really anti-Islamic or anti-establishment. It was increasing the accumulation of capital with the industry for war.
While aircraft aren’t exactly new to the modern age, air travel has introduced an increase in the level of risk associated with travel. There is a speed and height that remains unparalleled. Regulation is necessary to prevent the construction of unsafe vessels for flight.
The Boeing corporation is part of the oligarchy. They not only manufacture airplanes for travel. They produce jets, military aircraft and drones. They have been protecting their tax breaks and loopholes with lobbies and campaign contributions. They were a major player in the establishment of de-regulation. They exploited a government contract to produce an aircraft that would use less fuel.
Now, they have reached the end of the exploitation. Passenger safety is the line that the push for absolute power will not be allowed to cross.
Dreamliner Must Prove that It Can Cruise Safely
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-22/boeing-offers-787-battery-fixes-in-meeting-with-u-s-faa.html
"Boeing must show in tests and analysis that the fixes will ensure that the batteries meet the FAA’s safety standards. No schedule for those tests has been released.

"The battery changes also would need the backing of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who has said the 787 won’t fly again until the U.S. is “1,000 percent sure” it’s safe."
Dreamliner Blues Make More News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21548113
Other faults identified
"Meanwhile, on Friday, Japan's transport ministry identified the causes of two fuel leaks on a Dreamliner operated by Japan Airlines, pointing to a coating around the mechanism that controls fuel movement between tanks. That led to a switch not working properly."
Speak out against sequestration. Support the reduction of tax breaks. It is time for industry to pay their fair share of the burden for building national and social security.
Oppose the imposition of cuts that will seriously reduce the cash flow for small business around the country. The reduction of cash flow to less than a trickle will cripple many. Big industry won’t be harmed as much, but they will suffer as well. Some of the income from their contracts will be reduced or cut. Reduce tax breaks and close the loopholes. It will improve the security for the economy.
Be a friend to those whom you don’t even know.
Eric Woolfson  – Old and Wise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUxvU4IDQtY
Someday in the mist of time
When they ask me
If I knew you
I’ll smile and say
you were a friend of mine.
Deny the industry for war absolute power.
Remember the poor. Work to restore the great society.
Steve K.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Will



Others,
There is randomness in nature. Those who interpret natural disaster as God's punishment are selling people a political agenda for tyranny. It is sad when people are injured. It is tragic when they are killed or seriously harmed. Claiming that it was God's punishment however only adds hurt to the harm.

Meteor in Russia
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57569551/meteorites-slam-into-russia-as-meteor-seen-streaking-through-morning-sky/"Experts say smaller strikes happen five to 10 times a year. Large impacts such as the one Friday in Russia are rarer but still occur about every five years, according to Addi Bischoff, a mineralogist at the University of Muenster in Germany. Most of these strikes happen in uninhabited areas where they don't cause injuries to humans."

-----------------------------
The prophet of doom seeks to profit from predicting gloom. LaPierre is a voluntary advocate for gun sales. Gloom about doom is used to sell the boom of gun violence.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57569380/nra-ceo-its-not-paranoia-to-buy-a-gun-its-survival/"Now more than ever, wrote NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre, gun ownership is important: "Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Riots. Terrorists. Gangs. Lone criminals. These are perils we are sure to face--not just maybe. It's not paranoia to buy a gun. It's survival..."

-----------------------------

Establishment carried entanglement with slavery and cruelty. Natural disaster had been used as a justification for cruel punishment and policies.

Thomas Bray established the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bray#Life"He took a great interest in colonial missions, especially among the Native Americans, and it is to his efforts that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (founded 1701), now known as USPG, owes its existence."

Codrington Plantation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USPG#Slavery_and_the_Codrington_Plantation"Initially slaves were branded with the word "Society" on their chests with a hot iron… On branding at Codrington, Hochschild says “For nearly a decade, Codrington officials tried to reduce escapes by branding all slaves on their chests. In the end, though, the chief deterrent was the lash, plus, at times, an iron collar and a straitjacket.” Branding, the policy of one overseer and not continuous official policy of the managers, ceased within a decade of the Church taking on ownership of the Plantation."

-----------------------------
Puff for the Pope
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/16/world/europe/pope-resignation/index.html
"More than two-thirds of the final number of cardinals must agree on the next pope. The announcement that a decision has been made will come in the form of a puff of white smoke emerging from a chimney in the Vatican."


Cha-cha-changes.
Time to face the change.

"The question is not if, but for how much longer, the Catholic Church will continue requiring priests to be celibate. My answer: Not much longer."
More:
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/opinion/2013/02/14/new-pope-new-doctrine-archaic-catholic-church-should-allow-priests-to-marry/#ixzz2Kyb34B8q

Protestants conversely need to establish celibate ministries.
There was hope that Benedict XVI would match John Paul II in the promotion of peace in the world. The conservatism of Benedict however heightened animosity with Islam in order to avoid change in the "church."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/11/pope-resigns-idUSL5N0BBDOC20130211
"The pope, known for his conservative doctrine, stepped up the Church's opposition to gay marriage, underscored the Church's resistance to a female priesthood and to embryonic stem cell research.


Benedict XVI led the catholic church back to a pronouncement from the second Vatican council in 1965 with his "exoneration" of the Jews.

"Indeed, the Catholic Church has considered the Jewish people free from blame since at least 1965, when the Second Vatican Council wrote that while "the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today." "
More:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2057120,00.html#ixzz2KtEuy5ux
Here's the difficulty with the sex scandal issue. Sandusky was falsely convicted. There was no physical evidence to substantiate the claims of sexual abuse AND the definition of sexual abuse is too vague to satisfy legitimate judicial standards. He was convicted because he was catholic and the "party" was looking for a scapegoat.

The public has the distinct sense however that some of the priests accused of sexual abuse actually confessed to the act, but were protected by the sacrament of confession. If so, some punitive act is recommended for redemption. Exoneration by confession doesn't make reparations to the offended for the criminal act.


Reparations are in order. Moreover, multiple offenses recommend defrocking the priest from the priesthood to stand criminal trial in a civil court of law. Forgiveness doesn’t mean that there will be no penance for redemption. It means that the confession lessens the severity of the corrective measures.

Will the next pope implement corrective acts for actual offenders? This issue will need to be watched.
Will
Psalm 91, Luke 4

Whoever lives in the shelter
of the Most High, dwells
in house of the Almighty.


We will say to the LORD,
“You are my refuge and my protection,
my God in whom I trust.”

When you live your life as well as you can
you don’t deserve to suffer cruelty;
you don’t seek to correct with unusual punishment;
you don’t protect damaging behavior with laxity.

Faith in the LORD is a refuge.
It is a haven for establishing goals.
It is a hospital for recovery from harm.
Protection is provided according
to liberty within the justice of the law.
God will give angels orders
to help protect you.
Principles build principalities;
guidelines for morality;
messages for the messengers.
They are the rules for living
a good life.


Righteousness is the victory
for living well.
Happiness, health and prosperity
are the fruits of morality.

Salvation flows from the source;
the fount of life; the Creator; Nature’s God.
Jesus was filled with the love of God
and belief in salvation by the Holy Spirit.
He returned from the Jordan with faith.
He was led to the wilderness by the Spirit
to find harmony in the law of nature.


He was tempted to defy the laws of nature
when he returned, but he remembered
to respect the Lawmaker.

He was tempted to rule over others with deception,
but he remembered the truth and justice of the Word.
He was tempted to rule over others
with the power of death and destruction,
but he remembered the mercy and providence
provided by the Provider.


How excellent is his majesty?
He is clothed with splendor
He is adorned with achievement
He resides in radiance.
Light has become his attire.
The wealth of his legacy
will never tire.

Love is still the basis
for learning in the law.
===================

Closing loopholes is the key to government reform. If big government seems evil it is because it is being run by corporations; most remarkably, the industry for war. Tax breaks have not been decreased since they were offered to keep "multi-nationals" from leaving the country (have they ever been decreased?) The breaks and loopholes offer too much advantage. The money "invested" in Washington DC and other levels of government was not earned.

The advantage was offered to encourage responsible participation, but it has become a standing joke. It has become an unfair advantage for the "elite." Now corporations can dictate policy without breaking a sweat. They aren't even paying the same proportion in taxes as the common citizen. They don't have the right to establish policies that offend human rights in different places around the globe or the civil rights of Americans.

Apply pressure to eliminate the unfair advantage. Outlaw voting machines. They are more than just a symbol of corporate control of the voting process. They are used to determine the outcome of elections. Don't trust everyone in civil government. Trust those who are working for improvement.
When the Republicans complain about raising taxes in relations to closing loopholes, you know that they are protecting their money, not American values as represented by the bill of rights.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2013/0213/Obama-s-State-of-the-Union-address-both-bold-and-modest-video
"As he did in the campaign, Mr. Obama offered some reductions in the nation’s big health-care entitlement programs in exchange for raising more revenues by closing tax “loopholes.”"

Tax breaks have been used to dictate policy through lobbies, campaigns, speaking engagements and vote manipulation. The mandate to control policy is aimed at destroying opposition. Criminal damage to taxpayers has been inflicted upon those who oppose the industry for war as well. (Have you had to pay to repair a computer crash?)

All this has been accomplished for a smaller proportion than that which is paid by the common taxpayer. It is time to reduce tax breaks to raise revenue without raising taxes or putting the burden on the middle class.

Take Action Against Tax Avoidance
Revenue is Needed for National and Social Security
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-16/u-k-germany-france-urge-g-20-action-on-tax-avoidance.html
"Citing research they commissioned from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that identifies loopholes, finance ministers from the three nations said they will spearhead work to get companies to pay tax where it’s due. The countries provided the OECD with data to help identify schemes used by companies. "
Closing Tax Loopholes is Not Raising Taxes
Revenue is Necessary for National and Social Security
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/14/john-boehner-house_n_2685071.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037"Boehner suffers from the perception that he needs to watch his step to avoid provoking his tea party-laced rank and file into rebellion, and that can mean the House sometimes acts only when a crisis is near. But he's not afraid to maneuver the GOP House to places where it has to go in spite of tea party opposition, like the recent tax vote and bipartisan spending bills that passed with Democratic support."

Consequence for Tax Avoidance
http://www.zdnet.com/tax-avoiders-banned-from-bidding-on-u-k-government-contracts-7000011311/"Those that fail to pay the full amount of tax, by using tax loopholes and offshore subsidiaries, could face being refused on such grounds. "
This is the reason that the Republican party has taken a position outside of constitutional democracy. They are so disagreeable to Republicans who disagree with party leadership that they refuse to agree with anyone who is proposing something democratic. The only freedom of speech allowed is disagreement with proposals from Democrats!
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/02/15/16973600-when-partisan-politics-turns-petty?lite"But that's what makes McCain's comments so fascinating: while Republicans hate Democrats, they really hate Republicans who occasionally side with Democrats. So much so that a guy like McCain -- who previously said he'd consider Hagel for his own cabinet -- is willing to break his word and participate in an unprecedented filibuster."

-----------------------------
When Business Risk Eclipses Affordability, Consumers Suffer

"The ultimate price could be Scott's political career. Should his gubernatorial opponent be former Gov. Charlie Crist, Scott will be up against a candidate who froze Citizens' rates as governor and saved property owners millions of dollars by requiring "affordable" premiums. That consumer-friendly stand contrasts sharply with Scott's market-based position."
More:
http://www.bradenton.com/2013/02/14/4392232/florida-politics-property-insurance.html#storylink=cpy

Business runs on a dictatorship model for organization. The CEO makes an order and everyone else works to make the order work. The CEO gets the highest pay and the credit for making a product that makes a profit. Constitutional democracy entertains debate. A proposal for law is made. It is turned inside out and upside down. If it doesn’t work for the people, it is supposed to be rejected.
When business dictates policy to government, constitutional democracy is undermined. It doesn’t work correctly. It makes that which was supposed to benefit the people turn a profit for the corporation that pays for it. The stability of the economy suffers. The credibility of the nations is harmed. The budget for the government is not balanced. The strength of international alliance is damaged.

When the letter to the Romans was written, the exhortation to trust civil government was made to discourage rebellion, avoid punishment and hope for the best despite the cruelty that was displayed to any who questioned imperial authority. Democratic monarchy had made an appearance with Pericles before it fell into the hands of tyrants. The Roman republic had implemented representative practices until it was subordinated to dictatorship.
Constitutional democracy has expressed the rights that are to be represented by the government that has been established to build national and social security for the people. Public education has become an institution that guides youth into participation in politics with well informed reason.

Dictatorship looks like it is more efficient than organization that entertains debate, but it is not. Structured debate can be used to increase fluency in understanding in order to negotiate optimal settlement in relation to a proposal for law.  Refusal to debate towards a settlement derails the process and frustrates representation.
Relationship with another requires adaptation to mutual benefit. We don’t have to agree initially, but we need to work towards the best outcome. The following song expresses a dedication that is aimed at long term benefit.

Avril Lavigne – I Will Be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-5r_NYUsUk
I thought that I had everything.
I didn’t know what life could bring,
but now I see honestly
you’re the one thing I got right;
the only one I let inside.

-------------------------------


Letting someone into your trust is a risk.
It requires proposal with negotiation.
Negotiate towards optimal benefit for each.
Absolute power for one party destroys
the harmony for co-existence.
Share your prosperity for posterity.
Share your success
for that which will come next.

Steve K.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Transfiguration


Others,

Transfiguration

The story of the Exodus relates details that declare opposition to slavery. Opposition to slavery is good when it is not limited to the Liberator and confederates of the imperial alliance. Opposition to polytheism was presented with the premise that the stories about the gods endorsed immoral behavior. The counter-point to this argument is that faith in God was used to endorse war, slavery and genocide; behavior that is considered to be more immoral than sexual immorality.

John Locke was one of the greatest champions for civil rights in history, yet there is a passage in his treatise “Concerning Civil Government” that sanctions slavery as a valid expression of absolute power.  He got the ball rolling in the right direction, so to speak, but the endorsement of slavery counters the natural opposition to it.

Locke wrote “…there is another sort of servant, which by peculiar name we call slave, who being captive taken in a just war, are by the right of nature subjected to the absolute dominion and arbitrary power of their masters. These men having, as I say, forfeited their lives, and with them their liberties, and lost their estates—and being, in the state of slavery, not capable of any property—cannot in that state be considered any part of civil society, the chief end whereof is the preservation of property.” (Locke, “Concerning Civil Government, 1689, Ch.VII, ‘Of Political or Civil Society,’ Para.85)

What tyrant could not claim that his war was just? Slavery is an offense against human nature. Self-defense is regarded as a human right. War fought to defend national independence may be regarded as just. Nevertheless, the enslavement of the opposition is not justified. The so-called spoil of war spoils credibility as a civil government.

He also wrote “…it is evident that absolute monarchy, which by some men is counted the only government in the world, is indeed inconsistent with civil society. It can be no form of civil government at all.” (ibid. Para.90) This is not the end of his antinomy against the affirmation of civility in absolute power.

He continues “…he that thinks that absolute power purifies men’s blood, and corrects the baseness of human nature, need read but the history of this or any other age, to be convinced of the contrary.” (Ibid. Para.92) It seems that Locke was playing the devil’s advocate. He agreed with a prime proposition of aggressive imperial expansion, only to oppose the agreement. The opposition to a statement that he documented was something that he regarded as necessary for changing the history of his time.

History was changed. Freedom of Religion was added as a civil right to the US Constitution by James Madison. Slavery came to be outlawed. The right for women and men of color to vote was acknowledged. Stipulations regarding due process in law were added as well. While slavery has been outlawed, it has not been eliminated. Those who enslave people not in our society are attempting to enslave us economically.


---------------------------------

Respect for religion is an expression of respect for cultural development. Freedom of religion is  a political policy that shows respect for a diverse population of people.
Freedom of Religion in Japan

There was a time when freedom of religion was not allowed. Catholic missionaries had established missions by the sixteenth century but 6 friars and 20 Christians were martyred in Nagasaki in 1597.
http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/32.html 
"The Christian faith was first introduced into Japan in the sixteenth century by Jesuit and later by Franciscan missionaries. By the end of that century, there were probably about 300,000 baptized believers in Japan."

Other persecutions followed.into the seventeenth century. Western missionaries were not allowed to return until the nineteenth century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyrs_of_Japan 
"Persecution continued sporadically, breaking out again in 1613 and 1630. On September 10, 1632, 55 Christians were martyred in Nagasaki in what became known as the Great Genna Martyrdom. At this time Roman Catholicism was officially outlawed. The Church remained without clergy and theological teaching disintegrated until the arrival of Western missionaries in the nineteenth century."

Article 20 of the Japanese Constitution declares freedom of religion as political policy.
http://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Japan/English/english-Constitution.html#CHAPTER_III
"Freedom of religion is guaranteed to all. No religious organization shall receive any privileges from the State, nor exercise any political authority. 2) No person shall be compelled to take part in any religious acts, celebration, rite or practice. 3) The State and its organs shall refrain from religious education or any other religious activity."

--------------------------------

Torture is regarded as cruel and inhuman punishment. 


Torture v. Targeted Killing
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/02/obama-released-torture-memos-why-not-targeted-killing-memos "The key difference between the torture memos and the targeted-killing memos is that the torture memos were written during the Bush administration, while the targeted-killing memos were written during Obama's."

Torture is harmful, Targeted killing is lethal. Why does the comparison of the two run the risk of lost perspective? Torture was advocated by an administration that had directed two invasions against independent nations. Afghanistan was invaded for "harboring terrorists." (It is not a justification for invasion.) Iraq for suspected WMD's. (Another invalid justification.)

Targeted killing is not an acceptable policy. It needs to be rejected as cruel and inhuman. Brennan's nomination also needs to be rejected. This said, it needs to be remembered that the torture memos took place during the "war on terror." The war on terror was a larger scale of inhuman cruelty because it included invasion level events.

Lobbying influence and campaign contributions bought the policy of drone warfare. It is a scaling back of the war on terror, but it is still unacceptable.

Congress buried mention of targeted killing and indefinite detention in the National Defense Authorization Act (700+ pages).  The US needs to adopt a policy of non-aggression or the elite who profit from war or genocide will drive us into economic ruin. They don't care about the state of the economy as long as they have the green for the greed machinery.
Brennan Moves Back from Opposition to Torture?

"On torture, Brennan acknowledged that he was aware of the practice while he was a senior CIA executive in the ‘00s, and that he left the agency believing it could yield useful information, although he opposed it. Yesterday Brennan said he’s now unsure, after reading the summary of a 6,000 page classified report recently produced by the Intelligence Committee, whether torture produce information that saved lives or led to the capture of Osama bin Laden. “At this point, Senator, I do not know what the truth is,” Brennan said.


Read more: 
http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/08/brennan-hearing-shows-a-restless-congress-on-drones-and-terrorism/#ixzz2KJKseQw8"

----------------------

It is an accident when torture produces reliable information. Loyalty to state or religion, opposition to torture and physical reactions to pain virtually guarantee that false information will be extracted. The provision against cruel and unusual punishment outlaws torture even if it produces important information from time to time. The argument that it saves thousands of lives pales in comparison to the number of lives that were sacrificed to the war on terror.

Property damage and wasteful spending on war are also prohibitive in the consideration of using torture, targeted killing or invasion level events. The regurgitation of war on terror rhetoric is offensive to the US constitution and the people of the world.

Human rights are civil for Americans.


Congress has placed itself and the country in an untenable position. They legislated targeted killing and indefinite detention with the NDAA. Now they will be determining whether or not the policy chief for drone warfare (targeted killing) will become the director for the CIA. Many in Congress will dance around that which they authorized legislatively.

They cannot afford to promote someone who has actively promoted targeted killing to direct intelligence operations. While it has not been asserted that Brennan directed or approved of torture, the knowledge of it will need to be treated as quintessentially important. His nomination has to be rejected in order for Congress to start self-correcting.

If they don't correct themselves, other branches of government will have to do so. The unacceptable provisions of the NDAA are human rights violations. They cannot stand. The US will lose credibility as a representative for human rights in the world. The integrity of belief in civil rights will be damaged as well.

Neo-Cons Rise to Defend Drones
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/02/as-neocons-defend-obama-allies-doubt-him-on-drones-as-never-before/272947/ 
"Kill list overseer John Brennan starts confirmation hearings today to determine whether he'll get to be the next CIA director. Everyone is abuzz about a confidential memo that describes some of the scenarios in which President Obama believes that his underlings are empowered to extrajudicially kill Americans."

The use of drones to kill militants as suspected terrorists is indefensible according to the rule of law. Killing suspected terrorists without a trial is an extension of the justification for torture. It presumes that killing some is justified in the defense of many; just as the torture of an individual was presumed to be acceptable in defense of "thousands" of lives. The justification is false because the accusation of terrorism has to be tried in a court of law in order to preserve judicial authority based on evidentiary judgment.

If political leadership has conceded to false justifications, it has been due to the claim to absolute power by the industry for war with influence affected by lobbies, campaign funds, speaking engagements and competition for the wealth to win political contests for social influence. Decreasing tax breaks for the wealthiest is a way to decrease the size of the problem.

The progression of concern for civil rights has extended into the foreign policy of national government. The following piece celebrates civility for human rights.

------------------------
Rights
(Japanese Constitution, the French Declaration of the Rights for Man,
English Bill of Rights, The UN Declaration of Human Rights Ps.71)

Human rights are civil for the people of the nation.

People renounce wars of aggression from the state as a right for the nation. Force will not be used with belligerence to settle international disputes. Defense is allowed for the protection of civility. Alliance will be cultivated to include broader representation for humanity.
It is essential to promote the growth of friendly relations among the nations.

If we are to prevent freedom from falling to the last resort, the recourse of rebellion against tyranny, oppression and the injustice of inequity, we must set forth the human rights that are to be protected by the rule of law.

National assembly recognizes rights for citizens and human being. These rights are declared in writing as the plan for government. No law will be made that violates human rights. Law will be written to protect people from harm due to violence or oppression.

People are born free and remain equal in rights. Social distinctions regarding qualifications are founded upon goodness for the public.

The aim for political association is the preservation of human rights. These rights are life, liberty, property, security, resistance to oppression, education, employment, health care and religion.

The principle for independence resides in the nation as an expression of natural law. 
Things co-exist. There is a community of relations in co-existence. The perception of one thing can be referenced in relation to others. Comparison and contrast define perspective in experience with reason. The bill of rights was expressed to oppose the absolute power of monarchy. The separation of powers was established to oppose absolute power in government. No individual or group may exercise authority that does not proceed from the health and safety of the nation of people.

Liberty consists in the freedom to do anything that injures no one else. The exercise of the natural rights for each person is only limited by the assurance of rights for the other members of society.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security. No one will be held in slavery or servitude. Slavery and the slave trade are prohibited. No one is to be tortured or subjected to cruel and inhuman punishment.

Everyone has the right to a nationality. Everyone has the right to participate in government governed by elected officials. The will of the people is the authority for the state.

Legal adults have the right to marry and establish a household. Anyone has the right to own property. Everyone has the right to work with proper pay for equal work.

No one is compelled to belong to an organization. No one will be denied work based on association with an organization that recognizes human rights.

Anyone has the right to health care, education, social security and enough prosperity
to provide for basic needs. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure including reasonable limits for working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Murder and multiple murders are capital crimes for a citizen.
Genocide and wars of aggression are capital crimes for political leadership.

No one is to be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. 
Everyone has the right to due process of law. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. No one is to be deprived of privacy or confidential communication without probable cause regarding suspicion of criminal offense.

Everyone has the right to self-defense. We were born free with dignity and equal rights.
We are endowed with reason. We are called to treat others with respect. No one is to be discriminated against based on any distinction such as race, color, religion, opinion, sex, language, party affiliation, national origin, social status or group.

Everyone has the right to freedom of assembly and association. 
The inherent dignity and inalienable rights for all the members of the human family is the foundation for freedom, justice and peace in the world.


The industry for war has become an international oligarchy that has usurped the claim to absolute power. The oligarchy has been making policy for the government by paying for lobbies, campaigns, vote manipulation and speaking engagements to “win” the competition for elected office. Tax breaks for the wealthiest people in different nations have to be reduced to correct the problem.


Claims to absolute power may not be used to override the rule of law with a constitution and a bill of rights. Absolute power is defined as use of war, genocide, targeted killing, murder, assassination, enslavement, torture, indefinite detention, excessive bail, prosecution as persecution, conviction by characteristics of birth or association with legal social groups, cruelty or laxity in punishment, excessive force, predatory pricing, taxation without representation or any act that oppresses people.

People have the right to petition the government; to vote without manipulation; to participate in debate with freedom of speech; to belong to a religion that is not promoting war as aggression, crime or establishment over the state; to self-defense that allows for the ownership of weapons as property; and due process in law that includes a trial before a jury of non-discriminatory witnesses when accused of crime. Judgment will be made from the body of evidence for public scrutiny with the scientific method.

I take refuge in the liberty of the law. LORD, let me never be put to shame. Protect me from oppression. Set me free from persecution. Save me from violence. Shelter me from war. Incline your judgment to me for salvation.


Liberty with happiness is my hope. God given rights have sustained my faith since youth. The understanding of nature’s God has been the goal for my religion.

I have been sustained by the LORD with faith since before I was conceived in the womb. Providence has given me strength. My praise is directed to God and those who support human rights.

============================

Thermal Runaway! It's not just a physical anomaly. It's a political condition that Boeing has been forcing on the US and other countries in the western alliance.

 
The video is short, but powerful in its implications. Please view!

Thermal Runaway
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57568291/investigators-short-circuit-in-dreamliners-lithium-ion-battery-led-to-fire/ 

Dreamliner Becomes Nightmare for State Owned Business

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324906004578287963634247382.html
"No airline staked more on Boeing Co.'s BA +1.49% new 787 Dreamliner than LOT Polish Airlines SA, a troubled state-owned carrier that embraced the jet as means of gaining more lucrative, long-haul travelers. Now, its hopes for the plane threaten to turn into a nightmare."

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What's the con for neo-cons in the UK? They want a spending cut that will impose austerity measures on struggling European countries that won't sacrifice their fiscal advantage in the EU budget. What's the best response? Cut the advantage to cut spending for the EU.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/feb/08/david-cameron-eu-budget-gamble
"Cameron had always aimed to secure a real-terms freeze in the EU's near-€1tn budget. The latest proposals, presented by the European council president, Herman Van Rompuy, in the early hours of Friday, called for the EU's "payment ceiling" to be cut from €942.8bn in 2007-13 to €908.4bn in 2014-2020.

"The prime minister hopes to be able to go one step further and say that he has secured a cut in the budget, the first time this has happened in the history of the EU."

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The list of human rights for civil government may seem large. The size may be daunting. People have the right to make a living. Most people are delegated to the middle class or lower simply by virtue of the limitation of resources.

The following music video pokes fun at the difficulty of trying to make a living according to the norms of society. Try to sell lemonade. You can’t give it away. Sell alcohol. The liberation from absolutes based on norms associated with majority rule can feel intoxicating. There are other ways to make a living, but a sense of humor is generally regarded as required.

Democratic society is a mixed bag of tricks. Flexibility in organization for providing a service facilitates adaptation to market variability for the public.

Love others. Be true to yourself.

Steve K.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Precipice

Others,
 
Jesus had just read a scripture that proclaimed good news for the poor, release for captives, recovery of sight for the blind and liberation from oppression. He had stated that the scripture had been fulfilled. This had been said during the reign of Herod in the Roman occupation.

+++++++++++

http://bible.cc/luke/4-23.htm
He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'"

+++++++++++

Consider the importance of inflection in speech. When the statement "Doctor, cure youself" is made with an emphasis on the word self, it implies the connotation that correction should always be addressed to one's individual self. Complaint about social structure imposed by political organization will not be tolerated.

When the law of the political organization is aimed at oppressing people with the use of torture and the death penalty, it affects social relations. Some people will claim leadership based on the will to direct others to eliminate complaint as though it were dissidence; as a necessary prelude to violent rebellion. Insofar as the elimination of the person making the complaint eliminates his or her capacity to complain, the "leader" feels justified in torturing or killing the person who would dare to make a complaint.

Complaint is natural to human being. The will to eliminate it in others in order to reserve the right for one's individual self is tyrannical. Nevertheless, there are those who will kill to get what it is wanted. They would have us go to war again to increase power by increasing capital.

The gospel story goes on to relate details of how Jesus was led to the top of a precipice outside of Nazareth "that they might hurl him off the cliff." The picture of the precipice outside of Nazareth is posted in this blog. Would you hurl Jesus off a cliff because he proclaimed good news for the poor? See to it that you don't.
 
Fulfillment
Jer.1, 1 Corinth 13, Psalm 71

You were known
before you were formed
in the womb.
You were appointed
as a prophet to the nations
before you were born.

You are consecrated to speak to nations;
to call for tearing down the dilapidated;
to change that which is wrong;
to represent justice;
to walk with humility;
to talk about love
for liberty in the law;
to build and to plan.

You will be a noisy gong
or a clanging cymbal
even if you speak
with the tongue of an angel,
when you do not have love.
You will accomplish nothing
even if you move mountains
with faith, when you do not have love.

If you do not have love
you will gain nothing
even if you give away
all your possessions
and hand your body
over to asceticism
to show your spirituality.
 
Love is patient, kind and strong.
It is not envious, boastful, arrogant or rude.
It is not irritable or resentful.
It does not rejoice in wrongdoing.
It rejoices in the truth.
It bears that which needs forbearance;
believes in that which is believable;
endures that which requires endurance.

Love never ends.
War will cease.
Violence will stop.
Poverty will desist.
Crime will discontinue.
Oppression will not exist,
but love will endure.
 
We see in part;
we know knowledge will change;
we plan to promote improvement;
but when completeness comes,
discriminatory measures will be seen as partiality
and fullness in respect will be expressed.

When I was young,
I was prone to immaturity.
I allowed ignorance to stop inquiry.
I reasoned for my wants as opposed
to the needs of family in community.
 
When I matured
I resolved to stop promoting immaturity.
Truth is often seen as though we were looking at a mirror
in a darkened room. We will see the face of others
in our reflection in the light.
We will be more than the
reflection in the mirror.

Insofar as I know that ignorance
is a call to increase knowledge,
I will know things more fully
even as I have been known.
Faith, hope and love endure;
but the greatest of these is love.
 
Love is a refuge
in which we will not be put to shame.
We will be delivered and set free
in the righteousness of justice.

We will find protection
in the strength of construction
that prevents destruction.
Love has been our strength
from before conception
in the womb.
 
====================

 Read between the lies when propaganda is presented as truth.
Debate over regulation for a state run monopoly in a majority run state government that followed a decade of supermajority domination is limited to how much exploitation should be maximized.
http://www.theledger.com/article/20130201/EDIT01/130209974/1036?Title=Citizens-Property-Insurance-Reliability-Is-Foremost
Legislators could save themselves and Floridians a lot of time and trouble by taking one basic step: Require small, private insurers to meet financial standards that would make them at least as reliable as Citizens.
 
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There has been a refusal to investigate the destruction of the World Trade Center towers as a criminal act, but they still want to prevent the election of the person who released information to oppose the heinous acts of war. The industry for war has bought control of a number of western governments.
 
The tax break for the wealthiest citizens has to be decreased to stop the promotion of war as a means to increase capital for leaders in the industry for war.
http://rt.com/news/iceland-fbi-wikileaks-investigation-292/
Iceland refused to cooperate with an FBI investigation into WikiLeaks two years ago. The Icelandic Interior Minister said he ordered police to cease contact with the FBI, and made it clear their presence was not “well-seen” in Iceland.

Minister Jonasson revealed the story to AP on Friday, two days after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange announced he would run for senator in the Australian elections in September.
 
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Pitbull – Back in Time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaSZE194D4I

“Give credit where credit is due.
Know that I don’t give a number two
to all the halfway thoughts
not worth the back of my mind
but to understand the future
we have to go back in time.”

Build prosperity for posterity
by going back in time to rule out what
was not good. Plan for the future
with respect for liberty in the law.
Make constructions that will defy destruction.
Promote civility in government to improve
social relations.
 
Steve K.