Last night some friends and I went bowling. We played a total of two games. As you can see, I came in second after my partner Nilson. I didn’t play as well as I usually play. Only one strike. I can usually get 3 or 4 strikes in a game.
The media refuses to report on what is taking place in this country. Police and Immigration task forces are storming businesses and public areas and arresting anyone who is considered an illegal immigrant.
I am not arguing that these people are not here illegally. What I argue is that they are being treated inhumanly. Most of these people are just like you. Most speak English, they have a family and they work hard to support the family they love. They are here for a better opportunity.
They are here because the government has allowed them to migrate here. Now that they are here, in one quick swift blow, they are being singled out, arrested and treated like criminals. They are doing what all of us are doing, living in the pursuit of happiness. Isn’t that the American dream? They did nothing wrong.
The same thing happened in Nazi Germany, but no one sees that.
In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me — and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Global warming is a serious issue that needs serious solution and global support. A new documentary is coming out in select theaters on May 24. I suggest you watch it.
Get more information on the movie. If you care at all about the planet Earth make an impact, Pledge to watch the movie on opening weekend.
I'm not into punk too much, but I am really lovin' Anti-Flag. My good friend Antonio turned me onto this song this morning. Check it out.
Anti-Flag - Stars And Stripes
welcoming with open arms and, with open hearts in the end they found their arms in shackles and their hearts torn out this country named "america", is built on graves of the natives who lived here before, genocide took place the word "america" means "freedom" - as in, "free to kill the free..."
don't fly those stripes, those stars-and-stripes for me, for me don't fly those stripes, those stars-and-stripes for me, for me... For me!
it's the same today as then, as U.S. (tax) dollars are spent to rid the native insurgence in Mexico, and any other U.S. (corporate) "interests" the 3rd world is a modern day playground, for multinational companies and the tax dollars we're forced to pay, fund these heartless U.S. policies their explanation... "it's national interest, national security..."
don't fly those stripes, those stars-and-stripes for me, for me don't fly those stripes, those stars-and-stripes for me, for me they Stand for greed, they stand for hate, for nothing i believe don't fly those stripes, those stars-and-stripes for me, for me
at little big horn national cemetery, there's a monument that reads: "to the soldiers killed in montana while clearing hostile indians away... ' and there's a flag there flying high, over the fallen killers' graves when they call on me to die for them i'll say... "not me!"
don't fly those stripes, those stars-and-stripes for me, for me don't fly those stripes, those stars-and-stripes for me, for me they Stand for greed, they stand for hate, for nothing i believe don't fly those stripes, those stars-and-stripes for me, for me
don't fly those stripes, those stars-and-stripes for me... don't fly those stripes, those stars-and-stripes for me... they Stand for greed, they stand for hate, for nothing i believe... don't fly those stripes, those stars-and-stripes for me...
don't fly those stripes, those stars-and-stripes for me, for me don't fly those stripes, those stars-and-stripes for me, for me they Stand for greed, they stand for hate, for nothing i believe don't fly those stripes, those stars-and-stripes for me... me... me!!!
Many people don't have the courage to live in the shared reality that we call Life. So I've created a spin-off of this site. A site people like myself can identify with.
I’m talking about faith! Sam Harris is my hero, the author of a book I could not put down The End of Faith. Anyone who listens to him below and continues with their bullshit, could be the main reason why humanity doesn’t survive and prosper forever.
I’ve officially become a youtube head. I’ve uploaded my first video clip and it’s been viewed 229 times in less than 24 hours. This rocks! I can’t get enough of youtube, which means I’ll be posting their videos on my blog more often.
In reading the news, I’ve found the absolutely funniest show. I shouldn’t say its the funniest, I like Family Guy much more than this new show.
Wonder Showzen is the name of the show. Very funny. The show is made for those of us that grew up with Children's Television Workshop like “Sesame Street”
Its for adults only, they make that very clear by displaying the above warning at the beginning of the show and after every commercial break. They get these kids to say crazy shit! Its really amusing.
Here is a funny clip shown on the show. How true it is! The show pride’s itself on revealing the truth! Watch it on MTV & MTV2 and judge for yourself.
Many fundamentalists and their faithful supports don’t understand the main reasons behind the separation of church and state. They don’t understand the freedom it offers them. The freedom it has offered them for hundreds of years.
Not sure it’s possible for someone of faith to understand this. Understanding church state separation is a conflict of interest for the faithful. They cannot put themselves in the shoes of the people outside of their faith. Their faith gives them a feeling of supremacy. Supremacy is their driving force.
All the corruption that has recently been exposed in American politics shows they are willing to do anything to gain control. Their faith shows them without a reasonable doubt that the end always justifies the means.
Quotes from Focus on the Family’s James Dobson a leader in Right Wing Christian Fundamentalism Activism
“We only have about 18 months to get this done, because after that George Bush will be a lame duck president. And we’ll be in a new election cycle, and he’s not going to have the power that he does now…. If we let that 18 months get away from us—and then maybe we’ve got Hillary [Clinton] to deal with, or who knows what—we absolutely will not recover from that.”
“If they go after and get a pastor, then other pastors shrink from what they should be doing,” he said. “It forces Christians back into the church, and that’s what’s going on in America.…That’s not what Christ asked us to do.”
Former FRC president Gary Bauer took up a similar theme.
“We’re electing a lot of fantastic Christians who happen to be Republican,” said Bauer, a former GOP presidential candidate, “and these guys are fighting for our values. We just have to elect a lot more of them. The way to judge elective bodies is not how may Rs [Republicans] there are, but how many Cs [Christians] there are next to their names. When we get majorities in some of the legislatures and Congress of people that take their faith seriously, then I think that a lot of these issues go the right way.”
If that sounds a lot like a crusade for theocracy, the FRC and its allies don’t seem to mind. Speaker after speaker used the most inflammatory and divisive language to rage against federal judges and other Americans who fail to toe the Religious Right line on abortion, gay rights, and church-state relations. All those are legitimate topics for debate, of course, but these activists demonize those who disagree with them, sometimes literally. Opponents, to them, are not just misguided, but enemies in a culture war.
What does all this mean for America? The constitutional principle of church-state separation and the independent judiciary that ensures its vitality are very much at stake. While many Americans don’t realize it, a resurgent Religious Right is quietly building an extraordinary church-based political organization that could place freedom of conscience and the rights of religious and political minorities in jeopardy. This theocracy-minded movement has the potential of changing the face of our pluralistic democracy.
Founder Thomas Jefferson said that the American people, through the First Amendment, had built a “wall of separation between church and state.” If Religious Right activists have their way, however, that wall may turn into rubble.
It seems that all the United States has worked so hard to create, a free democracy is being destroyed by the people who think they know it all, the theists.
I just can’t believe that with all the bad things that happen that revolve around faith and religion, majority of the population still believe it to be this great and valuable thing.
If I was a believer, I would argue that these people are working for the devil. It would be obvious in their actions. But I don't believe in the devil so the only conclusion I can draw is that they are working under the misguided belief they are working for god, something that is probably considered by most to be worse than working for the devil, because they don't know it themselves.
I return to my favorite quote “ Faith is misguided hope ”
Check out this incredible boat. Pretty long clip, makes your mouth water.
This boat was featured a movie called “The Island”. I think it is cool how much entertainment can be had watching something you’d like to experience but know you will never experience. I guess that is the premise behind movie watching. A vicariously experience.
Everyone should agree with me that smoking sucks. If you’re a smoker and you don’t agree with me, its because you’re stupid. I know that’s offensive, but its meant to be. I know some of you smoke, but most of you don’t want to smoke, but you’re stuck in the tar. This shouldn’t be offensive to those people because you agree it sucks.
I don’t smoke and I feel that I’m more of a person because I don’t. Smoking sucks not because I say so, but because its (1) An Addiction (2) Expensive (3) Hazardous to your health (4) Socially unacceptable, should I go on?
Twenty years go smoking was cool, 40 years ago smoking was considered more important than reproduction, and nothing is more important than reproduction, Nothing!
Currently, smoking isn’t cool. When I find out someone at work smokes be watching them feeding their craving downstairs in the hot Florida sun, I look at them and tell them disappointment in my voice, “Oh man … you smoke? That’s terrible”
No one ever fights me on that. That’s how I tell them they suck, and how they tell me they agree with me that they suck.
Bumper stickers have been used for political outcries for a while now. I love them. This one blew my mind. So funny. Wonder what the percent of people are smokers in the US. I hate smokers, but I love the internet, found some cool statistics:
Tobacco use remains the single most preventable cause of death in the United States. More than 400,000 Americans die each year from tobacco-related disease.
Someone dies from smoking every 72 seconds.
Smoking causes more deaths than alcohol, AIDS, illegal drugs, car crashes, fires, murders, and suicides combined.
In the United States, an estimated 25.9 million men (27.1 percent) and 22.8 million women (22.2 percent) are smokers. These people are at higher risk of heart attack and stroke. About 4.1 million teenagers ages 12 through 17 are smokers. The latest estimates for persons age 18 and older show...
Among non-Hispanic whites, 26.5 percent of men and 23.6 percent of women smoke.
Among non-Hispanic blacks, 29.0 percent of men and 21.3 percent of women smoke.
Among Hispanics, 24.7 percent of men and 13.3 percent of women smoke.
Among Asians / Pacific Islanders, 17.9 percent of men and 9.9 percent of women smoke.
Among American Indians/Alaska Natives, 41.7 percent of men and 38.1 percent of women smoke.
Check out these cool car tricks. Four short clips in total.
Running from the cops without fear. Guy hides from the cops so easily! Nothing special, but still pretty cool! At least he has a live audience. Man, if someone stole my parking spot like that, I'd be so pissed. This is a funny commercial.
Yesterday I went on a Corporate Run, an event that helps The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society great fun. I’m a little sore today. I forgot to bring my camera, so my sidekick had to do.
Here are the pictures, excuse my picture viewer, it is in Beta.
On my drive home from a Corporate Run, an event that helps The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, I turned on the local Christian Radio station. Yes, yes, I know, you ask yourself, “Why would Leandro ever listen to Christian Radio?”
As odd as they may or may not seem, I occasionally turn it on to listen to what they are saying. I have a healthy curiosity as know what hundreds of thousands of people all over the country turn on themselves.
I like to refresh my opinion of that sector of the world. I have to admit, it is an incredible phenomenon. An immense gathering of what can be easily shown to be primarily unproven.
What I find most interesting is that all the talking, mostly story telling based on Biblical stories are (1) all based on one book which is considered and re-enforced but never proven as all knowing evidence (2) Not cross-referenced in any way to what we now know through the scientific method (3) twisted to fit specific human hardships that most people will identify with…in other words, Brainwashing.
I enjoy listening, to see how and what can be said to brainwash someone that is in most cases emotionally weak. I say this as a well known fact that a large majority of the people who find God are in some sort despair.
If you reading this are a theist you will probably identify with one of these examples on situations that weaken a person which dramatically facilitates their finding of god: illness, disease, heartbreak, death of a friend or family member, poverty, war, jail, depression, hopelessness; anything that requires courage to get through.
Evolutionary Missing Link From Sea to Land Animals
Thursday, April 06, 2006
New York Times, Science
Scientists have discovered fossils of a 375-million-year-old fish, a large scaly creature not seen before, that they say is a long-sought missing link in the evolution of some fishes from water to a life walking on four limbs on land.
...
Other scientists said that in addition to confirming elements of a major transition in evolution, the fossils were a powerful rebuttal to religious creationists, who have long argued that the absence of such transitional creatures are a serious weakness in Darwin's theory.
Poor creationists; Stuck in their dungeon of ignorance Locked away by their fear, powered by their inability to accept that life ends at our last breath.
As was expected by some, the “God Squad” which spoke very negatively and judgmentally towards Atheists have turned down an opportunity to debate with Secular Humanists on the subject: “Is God necessary for morality?”
So I ask, why turn down such a great opportunity? What does this say about the God Squad?
Here is the official report:
The God Squad Offers a Concession - Gerry Dantone
The God Squad has finally printed an "apology" to atheists and secular humanists that is halfhearted and most likely insincere. They wrote in their column that was distributed on March 23, 2006:
"....we apologize to all atheists for any feelings of hurt they may have gleaned from our faith in God, and for our belief that faith in God is the most secure foundation for ethical thinking and for the protection of the dignity of all people, whom we believe, with a complete faith, are made in the image of God."
No atheist has feelings of hurt because the God Squad or the religious have faith in God or believe what they believe about God. The feelings of hurt and other harm stem from statements such as, "When so many people can so easily say they believe in God, then go out and almost kill someone in the parking lot of the church, it’s hard to tell the believers from the nonbelievers?" (God Squad column, September 1, 2005).
This certainly implies that nonbelievers are more apt to run over others in parking lots, does it not? This statement was entirely irrelevant to the question being asked that week—it’s nothing more than a gratuitous insult to nonbelievers. Am I misunderstanding this?
After all, they have also written, "be glad that Sean is only an agnostic and not yet an atheist," and that nonbelievers have "no reason to get out of bed in the morning and no reason to believe that life has an edge over death, hope an edge over despair and love an edge over hate." (God Squad column, August 26, 2002).
I have not seen an explanation for these statements or how they can be interpreted as "inadvertent."
Our feelings are not only hurt, our ability to be accepted in American society is damaged. Atheists are the most unacceptable class of persons in America, as a recent University of Minnesota study found. We cannot be elected to public office, and our children are the subject of prejudice in schools.
These were not "inadvertent" offenses—they were deliberate and calculated. The God Squad should not distort our complaint to make it seem we are offended simply by their being persons of faith. They should apologize for what they plainly have done, which is assert in a number of different ways on different occasions that atheists have "no reason to get out of bed in the morning and no reason to believe that life has an edge over death, hope an edge over despair and love an edge over hate" and that atheists are personally less moral than believers.
I think little has changed except that the God Squad is now trying to deflect charges of bigotry whereas in the past, bigotry against atheists could not have mattered less. This is progress.
Gerry Dantone is Director of the Center for Inquiry Community of Long Island.
All this guy wants to do is tear down the separation of church and state that protects his religious freedoms.
I promptly responded with: (Seen at the bottom of the article)
This article is false on many fronts.
(1) This cultural shift you mention is not based on today’s political climate. The Christian right controls all three branches of government. The republican party, the conservative party, is on your side.
(2) As liberal as you think the media is, many of the laws being broken by the corruption of the Republics is not being reported. A liberal media would have had our lawbreaking president impeached over a year ago.
(3) It has never been acceptable by American standards to be immoral. Immorality is not judged by what your faith is, but by how you act, respect your time here on Earth. Your religious conservative friend in the White House is not moral, he has lied to us. http://www.thinkleandro.com/2006/04/bush-first-president-to.html
(4) American history is not rich with Christianity. Bill of Rights says nothing about Christianity. Why do you deceive your public? http://ffrf.org/nontracts/xian.php
From what I understand in this article, you do not stand for freedom. This country was settled and gained independence from the UK because they didn’t want to live in a country where their government told them what to believe. The Bill of Rights and our Constitution gives every Christian in this country freedom.
The more you push religion onto your public, the less religious your public will be. Look at the UK.
Venezuela is truly moving forward, I still cannot believe it. With a young population and through the Frente Francisco de Miranda setup up in 2003. This organization empowers youth to work in poor communities and help to facilitate many of the social missions that have taken free education and health to areas where many could not read or had never visited a doctor.
Revolutionary youth in Venezuela
Maria Rosa, one of the national leaders of the FFM, explained to Resistance that “now that the issue of socialism is being discussed openly, the debate we need to have is how we make sure that the socialism we are talking about is not just a simple slogan but becomes a reality”.
Beginning with the goal of creating a new society based on humanist values, solidarity and cooperation — where people come before profits — many Venezuelans have now come to the conclusion that such a society is only possible through socialism.
According to Rosa, the FFM believes that “the revolution needs to continue to move forward, to deepen towards the construction of socialism. We believe that within this revolution there needs to be a vanguard that takes this discussion forward with that aim. We see that Commandante Chavez is playing a vanguard role, but there needs to be social actors, organisations and individuals that push this discussion forward inside the revolution. The FFM aims to be a part of that.
“We have a battle on two fronts, imperialism on the one hand and poverty and hunger, which are the consequences of that system, on the other.”
Rosa explained that the social programs — such as Mission Robinson, which has eradicated illiteracy in Venezuela by teaching 1.4 million people to read and write; Mission Barrio Adentro, which has provided free health care and medicine with the assistance of 20,000 Cuban medics; and the food houses that give free food to the most needy — are part of this struggle. Rosa herself is involved in the national coordination of Mission Ribas, the high school-level education program.
Agnostic female President Michelle Bachelet was sworn in, in Chile. Simply incredible.
I’m glad that a leader’s difference in faith was not the deciding factor in a socially conservative Roman Catholic country. The country is moving forward in the direction of progress at an spectacular rate. Michelle, single mother of three is quickly looking to shed the legacy of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.
Progress is yet to be seen, but I have a good feeling great things will come out of her Administration. I’m going to keep an eye on her.
It takes courage to use the scientific method in research of the supernatural. It is still controversial, which is beyond my understanding, but it was done, and here are the results.
Prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery, a large and long-awaited study has found.
And patients who knew they were being prayed for had a higher rate of post- operative complications like abnormal heart rhythms, perhaps because of the expectations the prayers created, the researchers suggested.
Because it is the most scientifically rigorous investigation of whether prayer can heal illness, the study, begun almost a decade ago and involving more than 1,800 patients, has for years been the subject of speculation.
The question has been a contentious one among researchers.
Proponents have argued that prayer is perhaps the most deeply human response to disease and that it may relieve suffering by some mechanism that is not yet understood. Skeptics have said that studying prayer is a waste of money and that it presupposes supernatural intervention, putting it by definition beyond the reach of science.
At least 10 studies of the effects of prayer have been carried out in the past six years, with mixed results. The new study was intended to overcome flaws in the earlier investigations. The report was to appear in The American Heart Journal next week, but the journal's publisher released it online Thursday.
In a news conference, the authors of the study, led by Dr. Herbert Benson, a cardiologist and director of the Mind/ Body Medical Institute near Boston, said the findings were not the last word on the effects of so-called intercessory prayer. But the results, they said, raised questions about how and whether patients should be told that prayers were being offered for them.
"One conclusion from this is that the role of awareness of prayer should be studied further," said Dr. Charles Bethea, a cardiologist at the Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City and a co-author of the study.
Other experts said the study underscored the question of whether prayer was an appropriate subject for scientific study.
"The problem with studying religion scientifically is that you do violence to the phenomenon by reducing it to basic elements that can be quantified, and that makes for bad science and bad religion," said Dr. Richard Sloan, a professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University in New York and author of a forthcoming book, "Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine." He added that such studies are "a waste of resources that could be better spent elsewhere."
The study cost $2.4 million; most of the money came from the John Templeton Foundation, which supports research into spirituality. The government has spent more than $2.3 million on prayer research since 2000.
Dean Marek, a chaplain at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and a co-author of the report, said the study said nothing about the power of personal prayer or about prayers for family members and friends.
Working in a large medical center like Mayo, he said, "You hear tons of stories about the power of prayer, and I don't doubt them."
In the study, the researchers monitored 1,802 patients at six hospitals who received coronary bypass surgery, in which doctors reroute circulation around a clogged vein or artery.
The patients were broken into three groups. Two were prayed for; the third was not. Half the patients who received the prayers were told that they were being prayed for; half were told that they might or might not receive prayers.
The researchers asked the members of three congregations to deliver the prayers, using the patients' first names and the first initials of their last names.
The congregations were told they could pray in their own ways, but were instructed to include the phrase, "for a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications."
Analyzing complications in the 30 days after the operations, the researchers found no differences between those patients who were prayed for and those who were not.
In another of the study's findings, a significantly higher number of the patients who knew that they were being prayed for - 59 percent - suffered complications, compared with 51 percent of those who were uncertain.
The authors left open the possibility that this was a chance finding. But they said that being aware of the strangers' prayers may also have caused some of the patients a kind of performance anxiety.
"It may have made them uncertain, wondering, 'Am I so sick they had to call in their prayer team?'" Bethea said.
The study also found that more patients in the uninformed prayer group - 18 percent - suffered major complications, like heart attack or stroke, compared with 13 percent in the group that did not receive prayers.
In their report, the researchers suggested that this finding might also be a result of chance.
One reason the study was so widely anticipated was that it was led by Benson, who in his work has emphasized the soothing power of personal prayer and meditation.
At least one earlier study found lower complication rates in patients who received intercessory prayers; others found no difference.
The new study was rigorously designed to avoid problems like the ones that came up in the earlier studies. But experts said the study could not overcome perhaps the largest obstacle to prayer study: The unknown amount of prayer each person received from friends, families and congregations around the world who pray daily for the sick and dying.
To all my Republican friends that can't see farther than their ignorance and stubborn-ness. I think the republicans that still support the Bush Administration do so for two primary reasons.
Ignorance (1) Many of these republicans still hold on to Bush because of the two hot button topics, abortion and gay rights. Both issues surround human rights. I think it is incredible that after all this time and some American's still struggle with the idea of human rights. Most of these people aren't happy with the country, but they can't see the bigger picture. These people are usually neither gay nor women, yet they keep on their need to take the rights of those who don't effect them.
Stubborn-ness (2) Many of these republicans aren't really happy with Bush, but are too stubborn to turn away from their original choice, Bush. They would have to admit they were wrong, to vote for a Democrat. 'Me be wrong' they all must say. 'As if'.
First president in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.
In his first two years in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs.
Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.
Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
Cut the taxes of the wealthiest people in America (those making over $200,000 a year).
Members of Bush Administration are the richest administration in history.
First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in U.S. history.
Cut unemployment benefits for more out-of-work Americans than any president in U.S. history.
Dissolved more international treaties than any president in U.S. history.
Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases.
First president in U.S. history to attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community.
Took the biggest world sympathy for the U.S. after 9/11, and in less than a year, made the U.S. the most resented country in the world.
First U.S. president in history to have a majority of people in Europe (over 70%) view his presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.
In the 18 months following the 9/11 attacks, he has successfully blocked any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States.
The media refuses to report on what is taking place in this country. Police and Immigration task forces are storming businesses and public areas and arresting anyone who is considered an illegal immigrant.
In reading the news, I’ve found the absolutely funniest show. I shouldn’t say its the funniest, I like 
