The Pagan Science Monitor

Judex Canis Mesomelas, guest blogger

The Hon. Judex Canis Mesomelas writes:
"Grrrrr. Ipso facto. Woof. De fideli! Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, dingo entrails? Amicus curiae, sub judice! Sua sponte! Rrrrrrrr, rrrrooof! Qui facet per alium, facit per se. Veritas et scientia. DINGO ENTRAILS! DINGO ENTRAILS! I SMELL DINGO ENTRAILS! AND I'LL PERSONALLY SEE TO IT THAT YOU SERVE EVERY ONE OF THOSE SIXTY MONTHS, YOU THREE-TIME FELONY SHOPLIFTER, YOU!!"
Stein replies: Ranks a rot, judge, but: (1) Accessorius sequitur; (2) Actis non facit reum nisi mens sit rea; (3) Nemo potest facere per alium, quod per se no potes; (4) Culus tibi purior salillo est; nec toto decies cacas in anno. See ya next time folk ask for judicial evaluations. And (5) listen to Atmosphere."

God bleeped out

by Brent Mesick
Guest blogger
On January 25, the Associated Press reported that all mention of the word “god” had been bleeped out of the many versions of the Oscar-nominated movie The Queen distributed to Delta and other airlines.
Overlooking the irony of January 25 being the Christianity’s Catholic feast day for the conversion of St. Paul, the St. Paul who was the father of Christian marketing and shaper of early dogma, I instead marveled at the beneficial capacity such a bleep could have if extended into various avenues of our lives.

(*)Listenin' to ... (**) Thinkin' / feelin' ... (state of the union, part 5)

What T.P.S.M. writers & friends are listening to & thinking / feeling, post SOTU:
Severn:
(*) Soldier 2 Soldier, Stic.Man & Young Noble, 2006
(**) Does the health insurance you get as a politican cover self-inflicted clapping injuries?

Olive harvest delegation report (part 5)

by Miryam Rashid, guest blogger
Today:
"Olive harvest: Daher's vineyard & the Palestine Fair Trade Assn." and "Conclusion"
Part four is here.
Part three is here. Part two is here.
Part one was posted here.
Originally, our delegation had been scheduled to help Palestinian farmers in Jenin with their olive harvest. However, we were denied entry to Jenin at three checkpoints, forcing us to cancel our meeting with the Jenin farmers. Luckily...

Olive harvest delegation report (part 4)

by Miryam Rashid, guest blogger
Today:
"On the Road to Hebron," "Rabbis for Human Rights," and "Laws in the Land"
Part three is here. Part two is here. Part one was posted here.

“I would love to show you hospitality and invite you in, but I don’t have any water.”
-- Old Palestinian man near Hebron
The control of water is another device employed by Israel to control the Palestinian population. One particular incident relating to the issue of Palestinian water rights stands out in my mind.

"Great" country? How about creating a "good" country?

by ddjango of P!,
guest blogger

Racism is a philosophy based on a contempt for life. It is the arrogant assertion that one race is the center of value and object of devotion, before which other races must kneel in submission. It is the absurd dogma that one race is responsible for all the progress of history and alone can assure the progress of the future. Racism is total estrangement. It separates not only bodies, but minds and spirits. Inevitably it descends to inflicting spiritual and physical homicide upon the out-group.
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is long past time to examine and redefine, as it applies to the USA, the adjective "great."

My father's brother John, in contrast to my pacifist, socialist dad, fought in the Pacific theater in WWII. At the end of the war, he went to work for the DoD in southern California, where he worked for forty-five years (with a very brief stint in the "private sector"). Toward the end of his life, we had several conversations in which he ranted against the incredible duplicity, abuses, and corruption in the military-industrial-academic complex. In spite of the fact that his work had rewarded him with a very comfortable upper middle class lifestyle, he also expressed deep guilt, shame, and remorse about his role. He once told me that his greatest disappointment in life was that he didn't have the courage to blow the whistle, or at least quit. But at the close of each of these conversations, he insisted that the United States was "still the greatest country in the world."

Olive harvest delegation report (part 3)

by Miryam Rashid, guest blogger

Today:

"B'Tselem," "Campaign for the Right of Entry / Re-Entry," and "Holy Land Trust"
Part two is here.
Part one was posted here.

We met with the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B'Tselem, to learn more about the work of the most-renowned Israeli human rights organization. On B’Tselem’s website, the organization explains why it focuses on bringing to light the human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Olive harvest delegation report (part 2)

by Miryam Rashid, guest blogger

Today:

"The Wall" and "Settlements & Checkpoints"
Part one was posted here.

Israel’s 450-mile long wall and barrier, composed in urban areas of 25-foot razor-wire-topped concrete slabs, with prison-like guard towers interspersed on top, winds through the West Bank, including Jerusalem, adulterating the beautiful landscape of Palestine. It seems surreal, ravenous of the landscape. The wall’s sheer size is overwhelming – dwarfing cars and people, Palestinian homes, olive groves and farmland. Palestinian homes and olive groves in its path have also been destroyed.

Olive harvest delegation report (part 1)

by Miryam Rashid, guest blogger
T.P.S.M. quoted from a draft of the unpublished "Olive Harvest Delegation Report, November, 2006," last week and promised excerpts. Today we post the first of five excerpts from Miryam's report.
Miryam Rashid is program director, American Friends Service Committee's Middle East program, Chicago.
The excerpts are:
1) Introduction and "Meeting with Jeff Halper" (Sun. 1-14).

The billionaire party platform

by Harris Tocracy
What will 2007 mean to the Americans that count? American billionaires took notice of the November 2006 elections. We were dismayed that our investment in Diebold Election Systems' voting booths didn't pay off with the results we expected. The Democrats took charge of Congress!
Well, we've been giving them money, too.