Racism from my view.

I have been asked to write a post on my take of racism. I'm not sure i am the best person for doing this. First I need to give some background about myself and why I feel I am not a typical white male in regards to racism. I am from Arkansas and lived in a rural area that left me little chance of contact with other people other then at school and teen hangouts. The county I am from had 5 different school districts and of those five, three of them were all white students. One of the two had just a few years before I graduated gotten its first black students. The biggest town, population wise, was the main area where there were blacks residing. I can't be sure but would say between 85-95% of the black population lived within a small area of that town.  It wasn't until I had turned 18 that I can honestly say I had any real contact with people of the black race. The contact I had until Oct. 81 was during sporting events and a couple of times at summer camps. One of the summer camps I went to when I was around 11 or 12 was the first time that I recall this group having a desegregated camp. 

It was also at this age I saw the effects of racism for the first time. 

I went to school at a small school that was one of the all white schools. The town only had about 500-600 residents when I was 12. Because I lived about 6 miles from town I seldom got to hang out in town other then when we had peewee football practice. A bunch of us would share bikes and go riding all over town. One day me and a friend were riding past this house that was near the school and saw a younger black couple moving into a home. I'm not sure if it was one or two weeks later but me and the same friend rode by that same house and it was completely different. All the windows had been busted out and there was a lot of graffiti painted on it. I never said anything about it until many years later and it was odd how some people reacted to it. The rest of the racism up until I left Arkansas for the army was whites talking shit that they had no reason for saying. I never said anything back and at times laughed at their jokes. Even today the town I went to school at is just over 97% white. 

In 1981 I went into the army and for the first time I actually was forced to begin to understand that things weren't like I was always told they were. I guess I knew much of what I was taught as a child wasn't the truth but avoided questioning it. It wasn't until I got to my first duty station in Germany that I really started opening my eyes to the fact that other then skin color most people want the same things for their life. I have to give credit for this to SPC. Allen. He was actually very patient with me even though he really didn't have to be. Of course it took a few more years before I really got a basic understanding of how racism has truly hurt this nation. I guess the second big racist thing I saw happened while I was in the army.

I wasn't real big at hanging out with the people involved in this event but did know them all. The people involved were all white and the victims weren't actual people but the image that these guys presented. They were know within the unit as racist but they tended to keep it hidden from those in command. What final got them was a photo they took of a rope around the neck of a bust of a man that was black. Like most racist they weren't big on the brain power. They passed the photo around for others to see and a copy of it made it to the unit commanders attention. They were gone in a couple of weeks. 

Earlier I talked about an event when I was around 12 and how some peoples reactions to the event were odd. I was attending PLDC, Primary Leadership Course, while in the army and one of the topics was racism. Some of the other students thought that race relations within the USA was pretty good but I disagreed with them. I used the two stories as examples of how there are still many racist out here and that to believe it is pretty good was foolish. They didn't actually believe my stories until one of the instructors took my side with me. What I found odd was that two of those disagreeing with me and not even believing me were black. We were in Kentucky and I knew black guys who wouldn't even stop at gas stations unless they were with others.  It really did surprise me that they couldn't believe how racist the area around Ft. Knox was. While I was there one of the main leaders of the KKK lived about 15 miles from the base. 

Have I beaten my racist upbringing? No I can't say I have completely beat it. The reason I say I'm not a good example is I am not a very active person when it comes to making friends. I has a small group of people I call friends and the rest are just people I know. I have a set of rules I use to define what makes a person a friend and there have probably been less then 100 people in my 46 years that fit these rules. I would say less then 10 of those were people that have been non-whites. Even within the army I was a bit of a loner and prefer it that way. Some people might say 100 friends is a good number but you have to understand I have known several thousand in this time. While I was in the army I would meet around 100-150 new people every 12-18 months due to normal rotations within the army. I still have to be aware that I can easily base my opinion on peoples skin color not on their actions. 

Where I live now the race relations have gotten better then they were back in the 70's and 80's. I know there are still problems and until everyone decides to base their views of people on actions instead of what their skin color is, it will be a problem. 

Are there really any true Christians?

Real Christians VS true Christians, OR are they all ‘pretend’ Christians? I used to get confused over this subject, but then I realized that all one has to do, is to pull one’s self back from the core of this argument to see the truth - all of them are true Christians; if only because of the fact, that they have all based their lives around absolutely nothing. Superstition, ignorance and fear, are not reasonable alternatives to living a rational life. All of these people in one way or another; have all been lead down the path of make-believe and delusion. The real nature of a “true Christian,” only exists within one’s mind – as the fact is that no one has ever offered any current empirical proof for the first cause of Christianity, or any other brand of faith, for that matter.

With all the magic and miracles, in which all of these deluded brands of faith are based on; if any had any real essences of truth contained within them, then we’d all know what a true Christian looked like, when we saw one. They would be raising the dead, live on television, and in the presence of real doctors, who would say: “yep, that guy was definitely dead a week ago when I first saw him – and look now, thanks to Jesus, he’s alive again!”

The fact is no Christian can be any less true to an unsubstantiated set of dogmatic beliefs, than the theists who once believed in the 1000s of other gods and idiopathic religions, were all true to theirs. I find it just mind boggling the way in which most Christians can so easily dismiss all of the other god(s), as simple being a part of mythology – and still hold theirs as the only true god. The fact is, all of these beliefs, can only exist outside the normal realm of reality. And in the world of make-believe; anyone can be anything that they want to be, but that still don’t make it real to others. The only true Christian; is the only one who believes, that they are a true Christian.

Thanks for the Invite.

Thanks for inviting me to make post on your blog and I will try not to disappoint you. I haven't really ever told anyone out here that much about myself and figure I should probably do that in this posting. 

I tend to avoid being very open about myself even to people I know. I am a 46 yr old male who until just a little over a year ago finally started to get involved in fighting against the negative influence of religion. I knew at a fairly early age I wasn't like most of the others around my age when it came to religion. Me and one of my brothers was always getting into trouble for playing tic-tac-toe during the church services and we even got called out by the preacher once. I never bought into that 6000 year old earth belief and I think that when I asked my dad about how could the dinosaurs have lived millions of years ago, it was the only time I saw anger in his eyes at a question like this. I never got a straight answer from him but I knew not to ask it again. I know I was under 14 when I asked this and I don't think I have ever asked him another religious question. I guess I had already decided at that time I believed in something other then creationism but at the time I didn't know what it was. I can't say religion was an important part of my life at anytime and it was in vacation bible school that I knew for sure I was different then others. I was 13 or 14 and the next year I wouldn't be attending vacation bible school but would be there to help out in instructing the younger kids if I went. One of the other guys there was just to excited about how he was going to pass on the words of the lord next year. I felt embarrassed for him and it was shortly after that that I quit attending church. 

I don't see myself as an atheist but I know that I am not a theist. I don't believe there is a being or force anything like what people here on earth claim there is. I don't think I ever saw myself as a christian so I have no conversion story.

I enjoy studying history for the most part and I think that is one of the key factors in deciding that religion is full of crap. I see religion not as a major factor in the evils of man but the guiding force which has caused man to make the same stupid mistakes over and over. Religion has for thew most part held mankind back until the last few hundred years. Yes they did have educational institutes but they weren't for all people but a select few. How many people who could have helped to advance mankind were denied the education they needed by religion? Even now religion keeps people who could help mankind advance from following their dreams when they were young. I have no stats on the number of people who want to go into advanced sciences or other fields but because these fields conflict with their religious views they abandon those dreams. I have a niece who could have gone into most any field she wanted but because of her religion she abandon those so she could remain blind to the facts. She isn't the only one I know that hid from facts because of their brainwashing as a child. I live in a fairly rural area that puts religion about all else and have seen many leave for college just to return when they were forced to admit that their beliefs weren't universal. Instead of facing these other views they ran back to their group of like believers. 

The Roots of the Black American Christian Culture:

Back in the 1970s when I was in my teen years; I did the nightclub and afterhour’s club thing at least 2 or 3 times a week. Do to my successful business dealings; I always had a lot of money, and I was into gabling, mostly playing blackjack - and there was always a floating game going on, somewhere in the city. There where at least 20-30 regular players, and at least two games going on at any given time. And these games would float around between the homes of the players.

I would sit around the table playing with pimps, whores, dope-dealers, preachers and deacons, and many types of others people. As I would sit there playing cards and listing to all the latest gossip – like who had died, who had been murdered, who was cheating on their wives, and who was fucking who; the subjects of religion and politics would almost always come up, and almost always the arguing would began as well.

Most of the talk back then was about Watergate and Nixon – and how the black man was being fucked over by the white man. Most had strong opinions in these matters, and the fact that I was the only one there who believed that Nixon wasn’t such a bad president; I simply stayed out of those types of arguments. However, when the subject turned to religion and me being an atheist; I was always dragged into the conversations.

About half of the players were not into the church thing; and about half of them didn’t believe in god or Jesus. Some of them would try to be as intentionally offensive about religion, as they possibly could. They would say things to the Christians at the table, who believed in the story of the “virgin-birth,” they would say things like: “so you believe a snake, crawled-up that little bitch’s ass, and made your savior Jesus?” most of these conversations would become real heated at times; and just before the guns and knives started coming out, one of the preachers would intervene. He would say things like: “do you really think that Jesus would approve of a Christian killing someone over something as petty as this.” Then someone would say to the preacher: “do you think that Jesus approves of you gambling with the churches money?” then after a while, things would calm down again, and the game would resume.

As a teenager I just couldn’t understand, how someone could feel so passionate over a belief, that it would drive them to shoot someone. I started wondering why black Christians, were so much more uncompassionate to the non-beliefs of others, in their beliefs in god and Jesus, than the white Christians are.

In many of these less heated conversations, someone would always ask me why I was an atheist and why I didn’t believe in god. Explaining my position on god and religion back then to black Christians was always extremely hard. Most black Christians back then, were highly superstitious; and they saw the world of religion, as clear black and white issues, and with no middle ground. In their deluded little world of Jesus VS Satan; either you were with Jesus, or you were with the devil. With them there were only two types of black people – those who served Jesus, and those who did not. They would say things to me like: “you can’t serve two masters – either your serving Jesus, or your serving the devil.”                     

I would simply say that I don’t serve any master, and I only live my life for the love of life itself. And I just cannot subscribe myself to a belief which is based on nothing more, than a bunch of silly stories, written in an old book. So most of them, simply believed I was just plain evil, and the fact that I understood many more things about the world than they did; lead some to believe that I had made some kind of pact with the devil.

I was highly into math, science and electronics; and I had started repairing things like TV’s radios and stereos for people, when I was about 14, and I was making a lot of money doing that. Then when the cable companies added the first pay channel; I started designing and building devices, which allowed someone to watch the pay channel(s) for free. And I was making real good money back then.

What I found even more amazing than the black Christians attitudes of this conceived little black and white world of good and evil of theirs, was the fact that most were profoundly superstitious in almost every facet of their lives. If it rained on a Tuesday, they believed that was an unlucky day to play cards. If a black-cat crossed their path, than that was an unlucky day as well. Most had lucky shirts and other things for each day of the week. There were even a few of them who would get up from the table when I would sit down; they even would say things like: “Satan’s here – and I know I’m going to start losing my money.” But the only real thing which was really going on there was that I was just playing, the mathematical odds at the table.

Aside from what I learned through playing cards with these people; there were the private conversations that I had with these gambling preachers and deacons. Most of them were not as superstitious and ignorant as the rest of the people were; in fact two of them were highly intelligent, and could clearly see what was going on with me at the table. I became good friends with both of them, and we would almost always put our money together in the pot, when one of us was dealing.

What I found most interesting was the fact that they both were only religious on the surface; and they were just as skeptical about religion and god(s) as I was. And they believed that they were only performing a needed service for the black people. And do to the fact that over the years here in America, religion and Christianity had become so ingrained in the black culture; that most blacks would be totally lost, without their beliefs in religion and Jesus.

I started wondering if this had any relationship to the reasons why so many black people, never left the plantations after being freed as slaves. After a life of being owned by their masters, I’m sure that many of them felt lost without their masters as well. Still, I just couldn’t get the serving of the two master’s thing, out of mind. Black people in this nation had never even heard of Jesus, until they had arrived here. They were indoctrinated into the Christian-cult, by slave owners telling them, that Jesus was their white savior and master, who watches over them from the sky (so if I’m not watching your black-asses; then he is).  And only if you worship and love him; then he’ll keep you safe (I can only imagine what a hellish fucking life, it would have been to live as a slave back then – I know for a fact, that I would have not made it; “fuck them, and their fucking savior!”) this was simply a ploy to train them to love the white men (I simply find this so appalling on so many different levels).

In a free society, why would someone still feel the need to serve a master; other than it’s the same slave mentality. Then there’s the fact that some black people feel the need to outdo other races in everything, including stupidly and ignorance. I recently witnessed this with PROP 8 in California. The largest contributor was the Mormon Church; a longtime racist organization, which only until recently, excluded blacks from its priesthood. And in the 1950s and 1960s, the church fought just as hard to limit the rights of black people, as they’re now fighting to limit the rights of gay people (if black Christians believe that it’s Ok to discriminate against gay people, because it’s in their bible; then they need to look a little further, because it says the same about them too).

In 2010, black people still believing that old slave story is just astounding to me; that there’s a 2000 year old white master which is still watching them from the sky. I believe that we as black people can continue to grow and move forward, only by letting go of our fear, silly superstitious religious beliefs, and our slave mentality. Instead of worshiping and loving some imaginary space-god; and hating everyone else who has different beliefs – turn that same love to oneself, and our people.

(To be continued)     

Is Glen Beck only just selling idiocy to idiots; or, who’s the real idiot?

After all these years of Glen Beck siding with the Christian loons on the subject of global warming; he now says “you’d have to be an idiot to not notice the temperature change caused by global warming - and that he thinks mankind may play a significant role in the phenomenon.”


He simply calls himself an entertainer and “a rodeo clown” (just a stupid media-whore; who ass is for sale to the highest bidder, I would think?)


With a deadpan, Beck insists that he is not political: “I could give a flying crap about the political process.” Making money, on the other hand, is to be taken very seriously, and controversy is its own coinage. “We’re an entertainment company,” Beck says.


Personally, I’m undecided if I would sell my “moral soul,” even for $32-million – I just don’t know for sure, what I’d do in that case?

I’m just wondering if his new revelations will have any new bearings now, on the way the stupid and ignorant people in this nation see Fox “News.”

Animals that live without oxygen have been discovered for the first time:

 I have believed for many years now that our Universe is teeming with life. The only elements necessary for life are liquid water, chemicals, an energy source, and lots of time to evolve. It is believed that our Earth received most of its water, from the impacts with Comets; which for the most part, are just big dirty balls of ice. Besides being made mostly of frozen water, some are believed to contain, most of the elements, which helped to seed life, here on this planet.

I believe that anywhere in the Universe, where life can get its foot in the door, it will -- whether it be simple life forms, or life forms as complexes as us. From our current understanding, of how life got its start here on Earth, and with all of the variables, which were involved in our current state of evolution – we now know that unless other Earth-like Planets, mirrored our own Earth History in their formation as well; the life that we’d find there, would look nothing like our own. In a recent discovery closer to home; animals that live without oxygen have been discovered for the first time, deep under the Mediterranean Sea (anything that you can possibly imagine, probably exists, somewhere in the universe).


As I was watching this video, of the recently discovered giant tube worms, happily living their lives at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. Next to hydrothermal vents, that spews out poisons, which would almost certainly be deadly, to most life living here on the surface of our Planet; I could only wonder if life also could exists, in other places in our own Solar System as well – places like the icy Moons of Saturn, or on Jupiter's ice-covered Moon Europa, maybe life could also exists on some Comets as well – being the fact we now know that not all life needs “gods breath” to live.


According to the Christian Gawd in the bible; he only created life here on this Planet. And our Moon is only referred to, as a light in the night sky. So I wonder what the ramifications would be for Christianity, and other religions, if life was in fact discovered, in other places in the Universe, or even in our own Solar System.

 

Christian Silliness; and all other things Christian:

One of the things that I find most fascinating about Christians and their deluded beliefs; is the fact that it doesn’t matter just how asinine, stupid and ignorant something is; it’s still ok with them, just as long as its branded as being Christian. You see this in church when someone goes into convulsions, and starts blathering on and talking in an unintelligent or insane manner; that’s ok – he’s just feeling the “holy-spirit.” And then it seems that the bat-shit crazier that someone is acting; the more that they all seem approve of it.


I often wondered why Christians believed it is ok to take a child to church, where people are acting and behaving in such an insane manor. Where people are all talking to themselves (praying) – where they all talk to their food, before eating it (saying grace). Where they all believe, that they all have a space-daddy, who watches over them from the sky -– but if that were the case; why go to church in the first place?


If I was just as delusional as them; I would wonder why my space-daddy, would want me to behave so irrational. And is this the example that we should be making for our children?


These children then grow-up being stupid adults – how else could someone like Kerney Thomas, make a living by acting so stupid – he’s just being Christian; so it’s still just ok with them?

Is The GOP losing Their Christian Base?

I’ve been checking out Christian talk-radio for a while, trying to get a feel on the pulse of Christians and politics these days. I was very surprised to find that about 40% of the callers actually had something intelligent to say. Most of them were very disappointed over the 8 years that Bush served in office; they said they voted for Bush because they believed he would end abortions and bring back Christian-prayer in the public schools. And they now feel so deeply betrayed by Bush, that most said they wouldn’t vote again until they see a candidate, who shared their same values.



The overwhelming majority of them said that they would not be voting this year in November or in 2012. What I found most interesting was that only a small percentage of them thought that Palin would make a good president. They also seem to be turned off big-time by all of the ignorant and raciest tea-partiers as well. Most of them seemed to feel that neither political party supported their Christian values; and some were even saying that they won’t be voting again, until there is a new party – a “Christian party” (LOL). And most all of them were saying, they will not be sending the GOP party anymore of their money.


Could it be that all that bullshit the GOP has been stirring up to create so much acrimony
In our nation, is now beginning to backfire in their faces. And will the GOP’s base be reduced to those of the ilk who we now see at the tea-parties. I believe the good news in all this is, we’ll be seeing less and less of them voting in the elections.

Reposted story from Baconsbud:

By Baconsbud:




Thursday, April 1, 2010

Should I have said something?

This morning I heard about a news story that is going on here in Arkansas and told a co-worker about it. The story I mentioned doesn't have anything to do with the title but from this I learned about another event.
It was about 4 years ago that a guy I worked with quit and since then I haven't really had any contact with him. While we worked together we talked a lot about religion and how bad I was. He said I would be going to hell and all. My brother and I both missed his conversations when he quit. We both used to have fun baiting him on areas of religion and I am sad to say it was easy to get him flustered. I would hang out with him sometimes after work but he wasn't what I would call a close friend but someone I could debate with at times. A few times we discussed how Hard Copy would do those chat room hookups pretending to be minors and he would get a bit to emotional about this area of conversation. There was something about the way he acted and said stuff that made me wonder about how true his words were. I wasn't the only person that felt he was hiding something but neither of us had any kind of evidence to base this view on. I think it was his reaction to some of the comments I made and how fast he let his emotions get away from him.


Today I was told he has plead guilty to inappropriate touching of a minor under 14 years old. I always thought that his reaction were off but had nothing to base them on. It felt about the same as all those anti gay preachers and politicians that end up being caught in homosexual acts. Should I have said something more or was I correct in not announcing my thoughts?

The Catholic Church starts throwing sex depraved pederast priests under the bus:

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI sees the priestly sex scandal as a "test for him and the church," his spokesman said Wednesday, as bishops around Europe used Holy Week's solemn call for penitence to pledge transparency in dealing with the abuse of children.



But amid such signs of humility, a senior cleric also mounted a sharp counterattack to the allegations now swirling around the papacy. In an article, the official accused the New York Times of faulting the pope unfairly for his treatment of past abuse allegations.


Swiss bishops urged victims to consider filing criminal complaints. German bishops opened a hot line for victims. Danish bishops launched an inquiry into decades-old claims. And Austria's senior cleric, Cardinal Christophe Schoenborn, admitted church guilt as he presided over a service for victims billed as a sign of repentance.


"Thank you for breaking your silence," Schoenborn told the victims. "A lot has been broken open. There is less looking away. But there is still a lot to do."


A week after Pope Benedict XVI excoriated Irish bishops for gross errors of judgment in handling cases of priests who rape children, European bishops one after another admitted to mistakes, reached out to victims and promised to act when they learn about abuse.


I find this popes statement appalling on so many levels. In May of 2001 the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinge sent out a memo stating:



it orders that 'preliminary investigations' into any claims of abuse should be sent to Ratzinger's office, which has the option of referring them back to private tribunals in which the 'functions of judge, promoter of justice, notary and legal representative can validly be performed for these cases only by priests'.


'Cases of this kind are subject to the pontifical secret,' Ratzinger's letter concludes. Breaching the pontifical secret at any time while the 10-year jurisdiction order is operating carries penalties, including the threat of excommunication.


The letter is referred to in documents relating to a lawsuit filed earlier this year against a church in Texas and Ratzinger on behalf of two alleged abuse victims. By sending the letter, lawyers acting for the alleged victims claim the cardinal conspired to obstruct justice.


Daniel Shea, the lawyer for the two alleged victims who discovered the letter, said: 'It speaks for itself. You have to ask: why do you not start the clock ticking until the kid turns 18? It's an obstruction of justice.'

Their mea culpas and pledges to be more open and cooperative with police echoed American bishops' initial responses when the U.S. priest-abuse scandal emerged in 2002. They come amid mounting public outrage over a new wave of abuse claims across Europe and what victims say has been a pattern of cover-up by bishops and the Vatican itself.


And they were all announced during the most solemn week of the church's liturgical calendar. As the Swiss bishops noted Wednesday, Holy Week is a period of penance, when the faithful are supposed to admit their guilt, examine wrongdoing, find ways to improve and ask God and people for forgiveness.


One can only hope that the less faithful will start seeing just what an evil and corrupt organization that they have been supporting are; and see just how evil this little hypocrite of a fucking toad their pope is.


This is finally starting to bring hope that one day this ignorant and asinine religion; will follow the same path as did the others that were rife with pedophilia. Like the old Greek religions and all their baby-eating fucking gods did. But until that day, this presents an excellent business opportunity; I’m going to start selling anatomically-correct blow-up little boy sex dolls. I figure I’ll make mass dollars off of the priests; because they’ll be under so much scrutiny – they will no longer be able to fuck the real ones!