Our arrogance is a fabrication, created in Europe by  those who resent our past good fortune and who resent that their present freedom to verbally demonize us is owed to us as well.

In the Mideast our arrogance is a pathetic jest to scream at our media, knowing that the intelligence-hallenged 4th estate has no discernment in recognizing that a religion that victimizes women, gays and non-Muslims is the last word in arrogance.

There is a general understanding among many these days that the samaritan can look forward to having the hand that he offers bitten off by those he would help.

Europe is incredibly arrogant. They live in glass houses and actually dare to assert that we are agggresive, when the very fact that a portion of the population even exists as non-German speaking is directly applicable to us. 

How arrogant is it to attribute to us all the aggression when over the last 10 to 15 years all but two of the world battles have involved Islamic fighting? America and Israel have not been the starters.

How arrogant to say that our past alliances should have been foregone because of what has come to pass, when virtually ALL alliances, based on this thinking, make EVERY country equally guilty of 'aggressive' and egregious wrongs?

How arrogant is it to call us for help and then to insist we be the first to aid and send money because we 'owe' somebody? Have we not shed millions of lives, our lives, for their freedom? 

How arrogant is it to insist that our history of slavery makes us forever tainted, when our 150 years was comparatively short, but even worse, when Africa, (which sold its own people to white slavers, making the African nation surely as answerable for slavery as our own) still has slavery now, when Cuba is horribly discriminatory towards black and when Asia too has overwhelming slavery?

How arrogant are we to not close our borders when so many who come and take what part of the American dream they can, then go back and tear us apart?

How arrogant are we to have a President who openly speaks about his own nation in a way that a hundred years ago would have been sufficiently inflammatory to start cries of treason?

HOw arrogant are we that in any world crisis our private citizens, of all socioeconomic backgrounds, quietly and unstintingly give generous support that surpasses the help our government and several combined nations' support?

how arrogant are we to not use our weapons to annihilate the people that cry for our extinction? We could.  TRULY arrogant nations, like North Korea and Iran, are openly calling for our destruction (their history is more jammed with aggressions and unfortunate alliances than ours. And theirs goes back several hundred years longer), and intelligence rightfully is watching their nuclear programs because whereas we've shown no will to destroy countries, these nations openly seek the ability to do so and their lack of value for human life makes them arrogant and terrifying.

How arrogant is it to call US arrogant and to have the nerve to expect us to step in to defend, finance and medically save everyone?  To assert that any defense of a country that has any financial ties for us is wrong, but other countries, adopted by the Hollywood and elitist as so desperately in need as to oblige our protection is rank hypocrisy.  Where is the compassion for these people for the people who risked their lives for years to escape Iraq and beg us to help them from a barbaric reign? Why did hte media not let THEM speak? 

And we could have used might to take oil any time these past many decades.  To be so hardhearted as to ignore the plight of people literally begging us to help them, and to be so flinty as to concoct the reasoning that it's all about oil and not about compassion...well how it that THEIR compassion for their chosen suffering is merited?  Is that not arrogance, to pick which people deserve to die tortured and to refuse them aid simply because the person in a position to help is hateful to some?

Arrogance is to not take a look at the flaws and inadequacies of your own country and to actually hail a film that is a supposed 'satire' on the assassination of President Bush in Cannes...while calling for a death threat against Obama as being worth a massive manhunt, i.e. arrogance is deciding that your disagreement with one president entitles him to death,while hailing another president who openly agrees with your disparagement of his own country and is willing to ignore over half his citizens, deserves your deification.

Arrogance is not realizing that your satisfaction at the present  destruction of those you hate will result in the ruin of the future of your children.

Grow up.

When I was a child in the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) delivered a good health care program. However, 60 years after it’s inception the NHS lags behind most European countries. So before you decide that socialized medicine is the answer to all your medical woes, look carefully at the NHS. The system is cracking under the pressure of an increasingly aging population. Cutbacks are a common theme and the cost of drugs and treatment determine whether you are allowed to have them. Oftentimes, drugs are rationed depending on their cost. A recent report by NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) stated that terminally ill breast cancer patients will not be able to obtain a life-saving drug  because it is far too expensive. Hey, what does it matter? They’re gonna die anyway.

Currently, waiting lists are common for most things on the NHS, especially hip and knee replacement surgeries, which are on the increase as people live longer. You can sometimes wait up to 18 weeks just for a referral. It can then take up to two years to actually receive the operation; that is if you meet all the NHS requirements, which include weight and age. One unlucky 61-year-old was refused life-saving heart surgery because she was deemed too old by a cash-strapped NHS Trust.

The NHS is constantly funding studies to investigate whether patients who are overweight, smoke, or drink alcohol should receive medical treatment on the NHS. A recent report said:

Patients with illnesses deemed to be “self-inflicted” could be denied treatment under guidance introduced by the drugs rationing watchdog.

Heavy drinkers or smokers and those who are overweight could all be refused help.

Doctors can refuse treatment via the NHS if they deem your disease is self-inflicted. For instance, overweight patients are being denied hip operations in East Suffolk so that NHS hospitals can save money. Is this the kind of treatment you want? A paramedic left someone to die because he thought the patient was not “clean” enough. Then there’s the treatment Dan James received:

James believes the indifference with which her son was treated at two hospitals in the Midlands wasted 30 vital hours after the accident, in March 2007, which led to the 23-year-old becoming paralyzed from the neck down. When he was taken to hospital after a scrum collapsed on him, dislocating two vertebrae and trapping his spinal cord, James says “the terror on Dan’s face was apparent” but he still had the use of his arms and hands. Some 30 hours later, his hand function had disappeared after he had been moved unnecessarily, put last in the queue for an MRI scan and waited for four hours for an ambulance to transfer him to the spinal injuries unit at Stoke Mandeville hospital.

Another report shows that one emergency department in a Staffordshire hospital let approximately 400 people die unnecessarily due to poor care. In response to this poor treatment, “[Prime Minister] Gordon Brown has apologized in the House of Commons for the failings of a hospital described as ‘appalling’ by an NHS watchdog.”

Does an apology bring back your loved ones? What has been done to improve this hospital subsequent to the report?

Socialized medicine often means mediocre and late service. The patient does not get to choose the physician, the hospital, care plan, or timing of the operation or procedure. In Britain, that means relinquishing control and putting your health at the mercy of a system with a zip code lottery. Some Hospital Trusts have more money than others, but on the whole drugs are rationed, waiting lists are too long, and when things do go wrong you have to fight a bureaucratic machine that can take years and lots of your cash to prove medical negligence.

The problem is that the NHS has promised lifelong care. You pay with taxes and you get looked after “no matter the cost.” However, nothing is that straightforward, and they are constantly changing the rules. As they cut back and ration drugs as well as nursing care, they also insist that your property will be sold to pay for your nursing home costs.

Of course “free” health care sounds appealing, but it can cost you your life.

K.T.Dodge April 9, 2009

Those half closed lids and the noticeable lack of energy all attested to a woman near breaking on the final night of competition.

A GLOBAL rain of attention on one human being who had never been in the spotlight in her life.

AMAZING that she came back, sang so well and then at the INSTANT she learned the winners her face broke into a smile and her praise was immediate and gracious to  the winners.

My gosh that we still have people actually believing that 40s, 50s, 60s or even 70s determine success and potential.

How many 'exceptions' to the rule, people over age of 30 going for it and astounding everyone, does it take for people to get that it's a moment in the heart that determines the course of one's life, not some irrational, collectivist view on what birthday spells the end to someone's dreams and potential?

She's not going anywhere but up and I'm hoping a woman of individual looks who has lived life in near seclusion and now in nearly constant plain sight, will have learned from this brief glimpse how to handle the success that will undoubtedly come her way.

With a lot of Scot in me, I cannot help but be biased in believing she'll tackle it, so that every mean spirited naysayer has to button the lip for good or else look even more petty and ignorant than they have already shown themselves to be.

If you are not able to get blacks or latinos on board I don't necessarily think that it's a given that same sex 'marriage' (ssm)  is going to pass. Elton John was well aware that there could be a frightening backlash.

The whole idea of 'marriage' only became an issue about five years ago and I'd be very interested to see who gave it legs, because prior to that legally recognized 'domestic partnerships' was the VERY VERY specific relationship that gays were vocal about wanting legally. Then ACLU and I believe divorce attorneys (never behind in finding new lawsuits to pursue and given the RELATIVE rarity of gay monogamy, it's a gold mine for them)  got on board and gays who had been very sane and balanced suddenly found that they HAD to have the ceremony 'marriage'.

Also very strange is how many straight people are dismayed that their gay friends view them as traitors unless they support ssm, but do not extend reciprocal respect when it comes to the question of the vulnerability of organized Judeo Christianity.  Since 3 states have already proven conclusively that schools, churches and adoption agencies will be VERY vulnerable to lawyers hostile to religion, it's very dangerous for gays to keep saying that all they want is to be left alone, given that it's now evident and proven that without the most air tight (virtually impossible) of language, the ssm will prove irreversibly harmful to organized religions, something that gays have continually said would not be an issue.

I have gay friends who having read the articles I've shown them, where parents and adoption agencies and churches have come under attack and lost, because of laws in NJ and MA, do afford me respect and understand why I tell them that I want them happy but I cannot support 'marriage'.

Gays need to understand that a very small but incredibly aggressive faction behind this movement is intent upon using gays to eradicate organized religion. I don't think most gays are even aware that they've been used as pawns because most have been so incited by these rabid folks inside the movement that they cannot even remember that the people that they are condemning and shrieking at were only five years ago pretty much in accord with them for domestic partners.

The activists have overreached and I really do believe that most rational gays found themselves on the groundswell. Now, since they are only 2% of the population, we are likely to see a pushback. I think people like Elton John see this and have been trying to subtly warn gays.  They count on younger people being in their corner but they don't realize that this small aggressive group is all too likely to go too far and alienate the people who are now supporting SSM.

Atheism, Paganism and the Myth of  Organized
(Part I)

Muslims are allowed all the ire and rage they feel like if they are slurred. Buddhists are exempted because they have those pretty shrines and the very convenient pacifism. Scientologists all have so much money and are so exclusive that hardly anybody but they know what the heck they do in their rarefied clubs. 

So the only folks taking hits these days are Jews and Christians and, when they enter elections, Mormons…you know, all the Jesus folk who believe in accountability, forgiveness and wrong and right.

It’s not like they were ever promised a free ride or persecution free worship, but present day persecution is highly amusing.

A ‘well organized’ bunch of anybody-who-is-anti-Judeo-Christian has gone on the offensive, promoting legislation, lawsuits, PC language and passive aggressive behavior, claiming that the aggressive envangelism of organized Judeo/Christianity threatens their freedom.

Of course nobody can actually point out who kidnapped them, locked them up, fed them Bible study and insisted that they join organized religion, but that is not the point.

They ‘might’ do something outlandish.

If you recall the film with Tom Cruise, where they were arresting people for the potential crimes that they might commit, you will have a sense of the insidious attacks allowed against Judeo-Christians these days. 

And if you’re Catholic, good luck pointing out that virtually every hospital on the earth owes its history to the Catholic religion with the clergy and the sisters initially being the only folk willing to take in the sick and the helpless. Good luck pointing out that youth centers, soup kitchens, help for unwed mothers and centers to treat addiction all trace back to Catholicism.

No that was ‘back then’. That doesn’t count now. They’ve been taken on in the public sector now…not that the public sector has made any marked improvement. In point of fact, the non-religious custody of health care and all of the above seems to have filtered out a dangerous amount of compassion and recognition of the individual.  Business and self-interest has led to the diminution of life's sacred value.

A funny thing about ‘back then’. All these so called Judeo-Christian religious wars that apparently were the only causes of war were all ‘back then’ too. Today of course all but a few of the religious wars are Islamic…not that THAT apparently holds any reason for criticism. 

And let’s look at an historical point that is easily proven, but never taught: All the casualties of all the wars through history do not add up to a fraction of the casualties at the hands of countries whose rulers massacred their own citizens in ‘peace time’. Let’s also point out how many of the rulers outlawed religion.  Diehard atheists…those lovable despots.

Atheism and Environmentalism (paganism) are two of the most well organized ‘organized religions’ you will ever find.  In fact they make even the heyday of the corrupt Catholic church seem benign by comparison.  These folks are allowed to bring up every mistake and bad judgment anybody Judeo Christian ever did and use that as proof of why organized religion is more a bane than a blessing…but any mention of the facts that I have mentioned regarding atrocities of  those NOT belonging to organized Judeo Christian above, is always dismissed with that remarkably mature rejoinder: “It wasn’t as bad as what organized religion did.”

Only of course it was often worse.

The Crusades did not just magically appear to terrorize the population. The Ottoman Empire was not just a lovely architectural period. Go visit Turkey and look at the underground structures and hear about the 100 years of torture, rape and terrorization of that rule. Read about the 32 countries that disappeared during that rule and read of how the Crusades appeared after the Ottoman Empire invaded countries that had been Christian and began to attack and claim them for Muslim territory…with no peaceable tolerance for Christians or Jews. In fact women, Christians, Jews and gays all come off with the short end of the stick with Muslim rule. They did then and they do now. If you don’t believe it, go talk to the Muslim women who at great risk have escaped to try and enlighten us about the unbelievable oppression of the Taliban, the hypocrisy of Saudi Arabia, the heinous indignity of Saddam Hussein even, I’m politically incorrect enough to add, the absolutely horrendous rape, torture and massacre executed by those endearing lads that we ‘tortured’ in Guantanamo. Yep, those that suffered the indignities of our few unruly (yes they WERE inappropriate and yes they DID put a slur on the military however the ridiculous moral equivalency insists on doling out equal outrage for  transgressions at the level of  putting graffiti on a wall and stripping prisoners naked, with hacking off a person’s joints in front of their family and raping the women) soldiers. That particular group tramping around in their undies had just a year or so previous been among the Islamofascist soldiers that raped, beheaded, tortured and committed unspeakable atrocities upon the people of Iraq . 

We know this.

Of course writing this in a publication of any great readership I could look forward to a threat of Jihad and pressure from the politically incorrect to tone it down or face prosecution for inappropriate behavior.

I should instead go watch a television program where I’ll know that any drama with a priest or nun is going to depict them as ALWAYS homicidal, sociopathological or venally hypocritical.

ALWAYS.

Why? They know that they’re safe from Jihads because true, practicing Christians either forgive or can expect to have cries of hypocrisy rained down upon them if they ask for a little balance in how they are portrayed.

A “Boys Town” or ‘Bells of St. Mary’s’ would be impossible in this day and age where documentaries about Satan are all too likely to paint him as charismatic, misunderstood and wonderfully charming, demonized at the hands of mean old God and Jesus.

You won’t catch anybody but Judeo Christians hurting children or committing hypocrisy.

If we bothered to teach history that was not rewritten and was not handpicked for most appropriately brainwashing our children we’d see that this love of the ‘planet’ above people is nothing new and the last time paganism was on the rise it led to all sorts of mayhem, including the cheapening of life. Witness the level of extraordinary outrage and legislation perpetrated on the behalf of a slug or a tree, without repercussions, and then try and find equal tolerance for people who are similarly outraged about abortion and euthanasia. Tree huggers get on the View and any of your banal morning broadcast or late night programs, while those seeking some relief from infanticide and population clear cutting can be assured only of a contemptuous byline.

If that sounds familiar, watch “Soylent Green” and tell me which ‘organized religion’ does the most harm.

Atheism and Paganism and Islam all point the fingers at everyone else and claim virtue and ‘right thinking’ for themselves.

Sort of like Hitler.