True North Humanist Perspective March 1 2013
Good Lord! Priests in panties! What next?
What next? The Pope says goodbye to all that!
on The Pope’s War and clergy's child molestation
Democracy Now!
Former priest Matthew Fox says the Catholic Church has "become a viper’s nest. It’s really sick, what’s going on."
Matthew Fox is the author of more than two dozen books, most recently, The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved. He’s a former Catholic priest, who was first stopped from teaching liberation theology and creation spirituality by then-Cardinal Ratzinger. Fox was then expelled from the Dominican Order, to which he had belonged for 34 years. He currently serves as an Episcopal priest.
From the Desk of Geoff Bickerton
Germans award Dresden peace prize to Soviet Colonel
who saved humanity from a nuclear Third World War
Russia Today
18 February 2013 — Not only do classified documents contain secrets, they can also tell stories of unrecognized heroes. A small episode in Soviet history, that could have changed the world forever, has recently been revealed and acknowledged internationally, with recognition finding a previously unknown Russian awarded in Germany’s Dresden.
On September 26, 1983, then-Soviet Lieutenant-Colonel Stanislav Petrov was on duty at an early-warning anti-nuclear center in the Moscow Region, when an alarm warning of incoming missile attack from the USA suddenly went off. (More)
'This Blog is really all about Elizabeth'
Eric MacDonald, a Canadian schooled in India, has been variously, a sailor in the Royal Canadian Navy, a high school teacher, a university lecturer in philosophy, and an Anglican Priest. He was married to Elizabeth Lawrence, his one true love, who died with assistance in Zurich, Switzerland, with the help of Dignitas. She can be seen in the accompanying last picture taken of her and Eric in 2007 shortly before her death. No longer able to support the church or accept the terms of faith, he now, in retirement, spends much of his time opposing religion and its depredations, especially as this pertains to assisted dying. Choice in dying supports legalised assisted dying, and opposes religion as a cult of death and misery which opposes the right of people to receive help to die when they believe that suffering is intolerable.
This is my first blog post at Free Thought Blogs, so I want, from the start, to explain my own reasons for being here, for thinking of myself as a “freethinker” (a term which still does not come easy to me), and for wishing to join a community dedicated to freedom of thought, atheism, and opposition to religious belief. I also want to make the point as clearly as I can, as I start out, how Elizabeth (my wife who died in 2007 in Zurich) is the main inspiration of all that I write, and the patron “saint,” if you like, of this Blog. Without her, I would have been a very different person indeed. I will also remark on some of my present interests and concerns.
At the masthead or banner of my blog choiceindying.com, there from the very beginning in December 2010, has been the tag line, “Arguing for the Right-to-Die and against the Religious Obstruction of that Right.”
However, had it not been for Elizabeth, my wife of almost 18 years and best friend for 20, whose picture (sitting on a peak in the Lake District) is in the banner above, and who is now in my Gravatar image as well (precisely because what I am trying to say about her part in this is true), I probably would never have come to the point of disbelief, for not only was she a disbeliever long before I was, it was her struggle to die, when her MS, and the misery and pain and indignities associated with it, became so intolerable, that opened my eyes to the fact that, even for a liberal “believer” of the “Sea of Faith” sort, there were moral issues of great importance that I had simply overlooked by the general institutional support that accompanied my membership in, and action on behalf of, a specific religious institution.
Under succeeding Liberal governments at Ottawa
Canadian banks were stopped from aping US peers
Canada was saved from the humiliating wound of home foreclosures
while US criminals were rescued by Obama and paid lavish bonuses
Meanwhile
The politics of debt in American history
on who the Catholic Church's new Pope should be
16 February 2013 — Last night, Bill Maher closed out the show with a New Rule with some suggestions on who the new Pope should be.
And finally, New Rule: Hey Catholics, news flash. If the Pope can quit, it's OK for you to quit too. (audience applause) Now, as you all know, this week Pope Benedict told Vatican radio — you know, Vatican radio, playing the hits from the 8th century, 9th century, and today — Benedict told them he was going to resign because the Church needs a fresh young face. Somewhere other than a priest's lap.
And how could it not be? Every poll of American Catholics shows they find most Vatican teachings to be irrelevant. Catholics use birth control, they get divorced, they have premarital sex, they masturbate — sometimes all in one night. The typical Catholic these days doesn't look like this. She looks like this. (More)
This video exposes the lies of the 'Free Syrian Army'
as parroted by the mainstream media
It reveals atrocities by the FSA including the public whipping of women, forcing girls out of schools, and drafting children as soldiers
It shows pro-Assad Syrian women in uniform and training
and pro-Assad Christian civilian-volunteers at checkpoints
Published on Feb 10, 2013
This is the first weekly report from Eretz Zen Channel. The report is referred to as SHAMSEIN (Secular Home of Alternative Media from Syria - Exclusive & Independent News) or 'Two Suns' in Arabic.
Take time to view the video. It will reveal the shameful lies that are being told about what's happening in Syria.
This week's stories are:
00:10 Victories of the Syrian Army in Key Towns Across Syria... Liberation of: Aqraba, Busra al-Harir, Daraya Key Areas, Hayaleen, Soueida, Jarniya, Budairij, Teebat al-Imam
10:55 US Admits Weapons Support to Terrorists in Syria & Now Favors Political Solution
13:41 The Quweiq River Tragedy & the Usual MSM Lies
16:21 Christians of Saidnaya, Syria Stand Strongly with Syrian Govt Against FSA
18:39 Women Fighting on Both Sides of the Conflict in Syria
22:46 FSA Terrorists Fail to Infiltrate Damascus
25:33 Tour of Several Syrian Army Checkpoints
27:42 FSA and Syria's Lost Childhood
34:22 Islamists Killed Chokri Belaïd: Secular Leader who Spoke the Truth about Syria
38:48 Belgian MP Laurent Louis Exposes Western Goals in Mali & Syria
41:06 Abu Hafs, the Sword-Waving Jihadist, Makes an Appearance in an Aleppo Mosque
42:20 FSA Terrorists Shoot at a Passenger Airplane... AGAIN!
43:53 FSA Terrorists Beat Women in Deraa, Syria
Warning: Some footage may be shocking. (18+ viewer discretion advised, aimed only at documenting crimes by FSA terrorists in Syria) (Video)
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Sex and relationships
I was a sex surrogate for 40 years
'Standing beside her I felt naked'
The real-life surrogate who inspired Helen Hunt's Oscar-nominated "Sessions" role reveals what the film left out.
20 February 2013
Standing outside the theater doors, Cheryl Cohen Greene, who inspired Helen Hunt’s Oscar-nominated role in “The Sessions,” leaned in and told me in a hushed tone, “I’ve watched it 11 times and I cry every time.” Just feet away, an audience sat in the dark, watching the Hollywood version of her life — or at least her experience working as a sex surrogate with severely disabled poet Mark O’Brien — unfold on the big screen.
Laura Gottesdiener is a freelance journalist and activist in New York City.
There are a few famous ones who are essentially defined by their lack of adherence to organized religion. Woody Allen, for example, is the quintessential Jewish-atheist. In his autobiographical film, Stardust Memories, Allen's character explains that his atheism is not simply an aspect of his identity; it’s a cosmic act of resistance: "To you, I'm an atheist,” he says. “To God, I'm the loyal opposition."
In fact, the iconic Allen is actually only one member of a growing club: high-profile celebrities who are finally coming out about their atheism.
1. Angelina Jolie (More)
By Russia Today
19 January 2013 — As French soldiers pour into Mali in the fight to push back the advancing Islamist militants, questions have been raised as to the motives behind the intervention. Author William Engdahl told RT the US was using France as a scapegoat to save face.
RT: At a time when France and the rest of the Eurozone are trying to weather the economic crisis, what’s Paris seeking to gain by getting involved in another conflict overseas?
William Engdahl: Well, I think the intervention in Mali is another follow-up to the French role in other destabilizations that we’ve seen, especially in Libya last year with the toppling of the Gadhafi regime. In a sense this is French neocolonialism in action.
But, interestingly enough, I think behind the French intervention is the very strong hand of the US Pentagon which has been preparing this partitioning of Mali, which it is now looming to be, between northern Mali, where al-Qaeda and other terrorists are supposedly the cause for French military intervention, andsouthern Mali, which is a more agricultural region. [...]
Oil
[...] Because in northern Mali recently there have been huge finds of oil discovered, so that leads one to think that it’s very convenient that these armed rebels spill over the border from Libya last year and just at the same time a US-trained military captain creates a coup d’état in the Southern capital of Mali and installs a dictatorial regime against one of Africa’s few democratically elected presidents.
So this whole thing bears the imprint of US Africom [US Africa Command] and an attempt to militarize the whole region and its resources. Mali is a strategic lynchpin in that. It borders Algeria which is one of the top goals of these various NATO interventions from France, the US and other sides. Mauritania, the Ivory Coast, Guinea, Burkina Faso. All of this area is just swimming in untapped resources, whether it be gold, manganese, copper. (More)
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From the Desk of Dennis Carr, Sustainable Development Editor
A high speed rail network through eastern Canada
and throughout the US shouldn't just be a dream
There are social and commercial benefits to high speed rail. My map of what's possible drew supporters from coast to coast
Having worked on getting California's high speed rail approved in the 2008 elections, I've long sung the economic and environmental benefits of fast trains.
This latest map comes more from the heart. It speaks more to bridging regional and urban-rural divides than about reducing airport congestion or even creating jobs, although it would likely do that as well.
