In the News

Blessed are you when others insult you, treat you badly, and spread lies about you. The more inaccurate the lies the greater the blessing.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets before you.

Blessed are you who have been persecuted for doing what is right, for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

(Yeshua/Jesus paraphrased from Matthew 5:9-12.)

Amen.

2008-11-19 - Update - New estimates, shared with the AP from a study funded by a Danish pharmaceutical company, calculate the current cost of diabetes, combining direct and indirect costs, to be about $218 Billion!

This fake news just in.

"Spreading the Wealth" Outlawed

In response to many religious leaders' decrying "spreading the wealth," the government declared that there should be no more spreading the wealth.

From this point forward, no one will be allowed to give money, or anything, to religious institutions. Religious institutions will only be able to gain money from earning it.

Corporate overlords rejoiced in the demise of another "thorn in their side, religious organizations."

Recently it was revealed that Joe Biden declared that within some period after the election, after the inauguration, unspecified foreign powers would test the newly elected US President.

I am paraphrasing since I am not knowledgeable of the full quote and don't want to look it up at this moment.

However, I feel the need to add my two cents.

Headlines grab your attention!

Ok, it's not really a furrowed brow. And I know that's a weak pun.

• And I don't really hold any "skinhead" philosophies.
• And I grew my hair back, so I look (more or less) normal now.
• And I'm only one person, so it's more like "Former Baldy for Barack."

This fake news just in!

After learning every Alaskan receives a check for a sum of money, every year from the state government from a fund on the proceeds to the sale of oil (Wikipedia, State of Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend Division, Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, Earth Rights Institute, Detroit News, Google Search), the rest of the United States of America said, "Why aren't we receiving a check too? Isn't Alaska part of the USA? It's only fair that we receive a share as well!" (2008-09-11 Numbers)

So legislation was passed, assuring that every US citizen would be the recipient of the financial gains from the sale of resources gained from within public land, any public land any where in the USA.

Enraged Alaskans responded, "This could seriously decrease the money every one of us gets each year.

"We are saddened by this clear power grab by the greedy citizens of the USA, our former brothers.

"We can no longer tolerate this outrage. We are officially seceding from the USA today, with retroactive effect back to whenever we declare, and we'll be sending you a bill to refund us our misappropriated income taxes for all those years."

Russian Response, Swift and Crushing

"Not only is Alaska closer to Russia than to those imperialists capitalist pigs, Alaska has been little more than an oppressed and malnourished colony. We join with our Alaskan comrades and will support them every way we can in their fight for freedom from oppression.

"I have been waving to Comrade Sister President Palin, in Alaska, for years. "

Said the ambassador's aide, "When you compare the beautiful name of Russia with glorious name of Alaska, you will hear that it has so much more in common than 'Massachusetts', or 'Washington', or 'Kentucky', or any of the other multitudinous occupied territories of the imperialist capitalist pigs."

The aide added, "Don't forget our conflict with our neighbor Georgia."

Obviously this puts Vice-Presidential hopeful, Governor Sarah Palin in an interesting situation, our embedded reporters will be following closely.

2008-11-04 Update - Campaigning for Office of the United States President was interrupted today by Election Day, the actual day to vote! This seems to have temporarily defused this potentially combustive international incident.

2008-12-18 Update - This journalist, now writing, believes President Elect Obama should and will attempt to reach out in friendship, versus adversarially to Russia.

I just read a VERY DISTURBING news article... (which "inspired" this, the longest essay I've yet to write for this site. So please don't think all other essays are this long.)

A news item like this makes it seem that the story of Rome's founders being raised by a canine may have some tiny grain of truth to it:
http://www.CNN.com/2008/WORLD/americas/08/22/argentina.dog.tale/index.html

The United States Constitution

Section 9

No bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, shall be passed.

Let us focus on the second part of this quotation from the US Constitution, specifically "ex post facto". What does "ex post facto" mean? It means "after the fact" or "with retroactive effect".

Ok, how does this translate in to what the Constitution says?

To be continued...

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry that so many folks say Nuclear Energy is "zero emissions."

It seems they haven't heard what radiation means, it means stuff radiating outward, emitting outward, emissions. The root word of radiation is radiate, to emit something; and 'emit' is the root word of 'emissions.'

All they do is radiate toxic emissions, they emit: alpha particles, beta particles, gamma rays, and more.

This Fake News Just In!

The "I Hate Religion So Much It Is A Religion" Coalition, (or IHRSMIIARC for short), announced the banishment of "The 10 Commandments" from public spaces.

They stood outside the Supreme Court of Craziness and proclaimed it was a victory for "law", a victory for everyone with a mind too big to hold such a simple set of rules, a victory for the separation of state and church.

Please forgive me for teasing you Mr. Ban Ki-moon. I couldn't resist this headline. :-)

However, you call for, "bold and urgent steps to address the root causes of this global food crisis", and for greatly increasing the amount of food produced.

I don't think this is the "root" of the problem, not enough food. Much closer to the real root of the problem is too high human reproduction, i.e. too many babies, too many humans.

I have seen the future of healthcare in the US

and it's not the money grubbing system we have now.

What we have now is worship of "competition" (but it's only a facade of competition) and people who care more about spreadsheets than lives.

Want to see it for yourself?

Check it out at PBS.

2009-05-03 — Update

Dear People searching the Internet for this essay’s title and finding this essay. Here is the short version of my interpretation. When Jesus said God makes it rain on the righteous and unrighteous, he was talking about blessings, not tragedies. Rain is a blessing (in most instances). Here is the passage and context so you can read it yourself: Matthew 5:38-48.

Dear Iranian Leaders,

Nuclear Wishes

You need nuclear power like you need a new hole in your head! In other words, "NOT!" No doubt, if you read this, you will want to call me a hypocritical American (since you are probably assuming I am in the USA). However, I am worried for the safety of you and your own people. Not because of any repercussions from governments, but because of seismic activity in your country, and the incredible dangers of nuclear materials.

Dear Chinese Rulers,

I believe the Dalai Lama promotes violence as much as I believe Confucius promoted confusion.

However, I admit I am an expert in neither the Dalai Lama, nor Confucius.

Respectfully, NewOldSalt

Below is the post I submitted to a page at the PBS web site. Specifically, a comment section at the area devoted to The New Hour with Jim Lehrer.

At the risk of, again, sounding like I'm contradicting myself, I would like to offer another helpful tip for when you, or people you know, have to make decisions. I understand that these questions can be too blunt to work in every situation, but like another tip I offer , it's a good place to start.