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POPSVirginia Churches Fight Over Church Property Keep your eye on this one. What's at stake here is the ability of schismatic congregations (or dioceses) to walk away from their denominations and keep their property, in contravention of canon law. That's no small concern, particularly in high-rent districts like Northern Virginia. If the ruling goes against the denominations, we could see Akinola and his creepy buddies breaking up churches all over the place. I think the law here should be clear: civil courts don't get involved in ecclesial disputes. The schismatics should live with the consequences of their actions. http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=10500 I find this interesting because of the schism between liberal and conservative Episcopalians over the acceptance of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) persons. That is what led to the split and now they are fighting over property. Peter Jasper Akinola is the Anglican Primate of the Church of Nigeria.
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POPSThe Family: The Hidden Christian Fundamentalist Power in the U.S. A journalist's penetrating look at the untold story of christian fundamentalism's most elite organization, a self-described invisible network dedicated to a religion of power for the powerful They are the Family—fundamentalism's avant-garde, waging spiritual war in the halls of American power and around the globe. They consider themselves the new chosen—congressmen, generals, and foreign dictators who meet in confidential cells, to pray and plan for a "leadership led by God," to be won not by force but through "quiet diplomacy." Their base is a leafy estate overlooking the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia, and Jeff Sharlet is the only journalist to have reported from inside its walls.
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POPSPat Buchanan 1971 memo: Use Abortion to Split Catholics, Social Liberals The Nixon White House didn’t enact all of these recommendations, but it would be hard to find a more succinct and unapologetic blueprint for Republican success in the conservative era. “Positive polarization” helped the Republicans win one election after another—and insured that American politics would be an ugly, unredeemed business for decades to come. A strategy that has been very effective, using the citizens of the country as pawns in their power game. Pretending to care about abortion, taxes and welfare - when they could actually care less. As with race, those issues elicit highly emotional responses and well reasoned arguments will not work because of anti-intellectualism fostered by an elite. And the game is still open and the pawns are still playing. Imagine that.
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POPSObama Adopted as Honorary Member of Crow Tribe He is the very first candidate who has taken an interest in American Indian issues and visited an Indian Reservation for a campaign rally. Incredible! And yet another reason to vote for Obama. Watch flash presentation of the rally at the official site of the Crow Tribe Apsaalooke Nation website www.crowtribe.com
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POPSThe Return of the Chastity Belt "It doesn't prevent customers asking for oral sex or masturbation for instance" Estu Fanani is in charge of a local women’s rights NGO, “LBH APIK”. The decision by Batu officials is a very bad one. It reduces the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace to only one part of the female body - the vagina. If the Batu authorities really want to protect their female therapists, why don’t they ask massage parlours to install video cameras or create open spaces? Then they would have evidence in order to be able to punish the men rather than the women. This decision is very hypocritical. It doesn’t prevent customers asking for oral sex or masturbation for instance. And what if these women have to go to the bathroom urgently? It could be dangerous for their health."
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POPS10 Books That Screwed Up The World I agree with most of this list, the rest I have no opinion because I haven't read the books. My curiosity has been piqued enough to read them and found out. Read the article to learn beyond the summaries why these books (and by extension, their authors) are considered to be so harmful.
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POPSNews Alert:Schools need separate bathrooms for gay students The priceless response to Mr. Bayes video presentation at IdahoStatesman.com I say go ahead, that would be great to have separate bathrooms for all homosexuals and gays, since Walt wants to bring back separate but equal I will gladly use the homosexual bathroom, provided at great expense by all universities, restaraunts, department stores, gas stations, yes millions of dollars worth of totally unnecessary bathrooms so that nobody will look at Mr. Bayes while he's urinating. I assure you the homosexual men will have much cleaner nicer and flowery smelling bathrooms, that are used one tenth as much as the hetrosexual bathrooms you so crave. The Video: http://videos.idahostatesman.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=1839114
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POPS3 Enterprising Youths Recycle Corpse Head To Make Bong Little is known about the graveyard. The Humble Bicentennial Museum could not confirm that it was reserved for black veterans, but Adkins said he observed "many, many headstones" for black soldiers killed during World War I and World War II.
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POPSThe Burden of Transcending Race For blacks, the worst thing it seems (at least in the minds of whites) is to be seen as black, which is no doubt why so many whites think it's a compliment to say things to black folks like, "I don't even think of you as black," not realizing that the subtext of such a comment is that it's a damned good thing they don't, for if they did, the person so thought of would be up the proverbial creek for sure. the success of Barack Obama has proven, perhaps more so than any other single thing could, just how powerful race remains in America. His success, far from disproving white power and privilege, confirms it with a vengeance.
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POPSTo Conservatives because they care so much about African-Americans Since conservatives claim to be the historical champions for African-Americans, this little clip lays out the road map that they must take to reclaim their legacy. All conservatives need to do is 1): reform the criminal justice system and 2): strengthen and enforce laws against employment discrimination. It's very simple and will go a long way towards strengthening those African-American families that conservatives claim to care so much about. Indeed, according to the Blumrosen study, at least 1.3 million qualified people of color will face job discrimination in a given year. Or what of the study of temporary agencies in California, which found that white women who are less qualified than their black counterparts, are still three times more likely to be favored in a job search?
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POPSAmerican Generations and The Fourth Turning (Present Time) Based on historical patterns, America will hit a once-in-a-century national crisis within the decade...'like winter,' the crisis or 'fourth turning' cannot be averted. It will last 20 years or so and bring hardship and upheavals similar to previous fourth turnings, such as the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the Great Depression and World War II. The fourth turning is a perilous time because the result could be a new 'golden age' for America or the beginning of the end.' 'It all will begin with a 'sudden spark' that catalyzes a crisis mood 'around the year 2005.' Neil Howe, William Strauss, The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy, 1997, ISBN 0-553-06682-X
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POPSAmerican Generations and Historical Change Crisis. A Crisis is a decisive era of secular upheaval. The values regime propels the replacement of the old civic order with a new one. Wars are waged with apocalyptic finality. Examples of Crisis eras include the Wars of the Roses (1459-1487), the Spanish Armada Crisis (1569-1594), the colonial Glorious Revolution (1675-1704), the American Revolution (1773-1794), the American Civil War (1860-1865), and the twin emergencies of the Great Depression and World War II (1932-1945), and now possibly the present time from September 11th, 2001. High. A High is an era between a Crisis and an Awakening. The most recent High was seen between World War II and the Consciousness Revolution. William Strauss and Neil Howe, in their books Generations (ISBN 0-688-11912-3) (1991) and The Fourth Turning (1997), divide Anglo-American history into saecula, or seasonal cycles of history
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POPSHigher Suicide Rates Under Conservative Government The researchers took into account periods of drought and World War II, because of their economic and psychological impact. Suicide rates were higher during periods of drought and lower during WWII. But after adjusting for these factors, the figures clearly showed the highest rates of suicide occurred when both Conservative state and federal governments were in power. Conversely, the lowest rates occurred when state and federal governments were both Labour. Middle aged and older people were most at risk. When the Conservatives ruled both state and federal governments, men were 17% more likely to commit suicide than when Labour was in power. Women were 40% more likely to kill themselves. Conservative rule traditionally implies a less interventionist and more market-orientated policy than Labour rule
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POPSNew Orleans: The Art of the Corpse by Andre Codrescu New Orleans sank into the funk like a corpse into the embrace of the earth. The rows of fridges lining the streets looked by moonlight like primed canvasses ready for painting. The city’s artists, who have been enthralled since John James Audubon by New Orleans’ embrace of decay and death (Audubon purchased all his American birds dead from the French Market) were not long in reacting. New Orleans music and art had always been inspired by funk ... Now here was all this funk, magnified a thousand times. And here were all these metal tombs stretching as far as the eye could see, more numerous than the graves they resembled. ,,, In a short time, there were thousands of art works in the city, an exhibition that stretched for miles, Today, most of the show is closed. New Orleans always renewed its armies of ghosts after every disaster of its 500-year history, but this last addition came with its own unique, absolutely new style.
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