Thanksgiving - Hell Day

Thanksgiving is a lie. Just like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. There's no more truth to the Hallmark moment of Pilgrims and Native Americans sharing a feast of squash, corn and turkey than there is to Betsy Ross sewing the first American flag. No definitive historical evidence exists to prove either patriotic legend. According to my favorite history text, "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James W. Loewen, it was all manufactured to create a feel-good beginning for this country. Thanksgiving wasn't invented by the Pilgrims. By the time the Mayflower pulled up at Plymouth Rock in 1620, Native Americans in that part of the country already had a rich tradition of marking the fall harvest with a major fiesta. The day wasn't recognized nationally until 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln declared it a holiday. He had an entirely different motive than honoring the Pilgrims: Morale during the bloody Civil War. America needed a warm fuzzy holiday to make it feel good about itself again. The Pilgrims were latecomers to the legend, not getting added to the mix until the 1890s. Of course, some major revisions had to be done to make heroes of those guys. The truth is: When the Pilgrims arrived on the coast of Massachusetts, they found a deserted Native American settlement. Unburied human bodies were scattered everywhere. The survivors had vanished. The villagers had been wiped out by a plague, brought to the "new world" years before by the Europeans. The immune system of the native peoples had no defense against those diseases. Many in Europe couldn't be happier. Good Christian that he was, King James of England called the death of millions of Native Americans "this wonderful plague." He thanked God for sending it. Other preachers of the day echoed this same sentiment. They believed that God had aided the conquest of the new land by sending disease to ravage the native populations, so that the English could have it. How convenient for them that God was on their side. The Pilgrims, who were ill-equipped to survive in the harsh environment they found themselves in, immediately took advantage of the situation. They proceeded to rob food (including corn and squash) and pottery from the deserted Native village. They also stole from Indian graves. Within about 50 years of arriving, they had slaughtered most of the native population in the area that wasn't already killed by the plague. Not the touchy-feelie story you'll see on TV this week. -written by Tommi Avicolli Mecca for BeyondChron.org

Youth With A Mission

I was a part of this Christian cult. A VIDEO made with the help of US missionaries and depicting Amazon Indians burying children alive is faked and inciting racial hatred, a group campaigning for tribal rights said. The short video, Hakani, has been watched more than 350,000 times on the YouTube video-sharing website. It depicts scenes of Indians in an isolated forest village digging graves and burying several live children in them. The "Hakani" campaign also has a website and a group on Facebook with more than 13,000 members. London-based Survival International said the Hakani film is "faked, that the earth covering the children's faces is actually chocolate cake, and that the film's claim that infanticide among Brazilian Indians is widespread is false." "People are being taught to hate Indians, even wish them dead," said Survival's director, Stephen Corry. The video was made by the son of the founder of an American missionary organisation called Youth with a Mission, which has a branch in Brazil known as Jocum. Enock Freire, one of the makers of the film, said Youth With a Mission helped in the production of the film, which he acknowledged was fictional and aimed at drawing attention to what he said was a serious problem. "It (infanticide) is common," he said from Hawaii. "This distortion that we are trying to incite hate is untrue." Infanticide is practiced by some tribes in the Amazon region, sometimes on disabled children, often based on the belief that children who take their last breath above land will come back to haunt a community.

Paul Eluard

미화된 언어나 진주를 꿴 듯 아름답게 포장된 '말'처럼 가증스러운 것은 없다. 진정한 시에는 가식이 없고, 거짓 구원도 없다. 무지갯 빛 눈물도 없다. 진정한 시는 이 세상에 모래사막과 진창이 있다는 것을 안다. 왁스를 칠한 마루와 헝클어진 머리와 거친 손이 있다는 것을 안다. 뻔뻔스러운 희생자도 있고, 불행한 영웅도 있으며 훌륭한 바보도 있다는 것을 안다. 강아지에도 여러 종류가 있으며, 걸레도 있으며, 들에 피는 꽃도 있고, 무덤 위에 피는 꽃도 있다는 것을 안다. 삶속에 시가 있다.

Sharia

November 17, 2009 A 20-year-old woman divorcee accused of committing adultery in Somalia has been stoned to death by Islamists in front of a crowd of about 200 people. A judge working for the militant group al-Shabab said she had had an affair with an unmarried 29-year-old man. He said she gave birth to a still-born baby and was found guilty of adultery. Her boyfriend was given 100 lashes. The woman was taken to public grounds where she was buried up to her waist. She was then stoned to death in front of the crowds. Under Sharia (Islamic law), anyone who has ever been married - even a divorcee - who has an affair is liable to be found guilty of adultery, punishable by stoning death.

Submission by Theo van Gogh

Van Gogh worked with writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali to produce this 10 minute film which analyzed the treatment of women in Islam. Van Gogh was killed by a Muslim on November 2, 2004 because of the film. "Submission" is the translation of the Arabic word "Islam." Religion poisons everything.

David Bazan

You've heard the story You know how it goes Once upon a garden We were lovers with no clothes Fresh from the soil We were beautiful and true In control of our emotions 'Till we ate the poison fruit And now its hard to be a decent human being Wait just a minute You expect me to believe that all this misbehaving Grew from one enchanted tree And helpless to fight it We should all be satisfied With the magical explanation For why the living die Childbirth is painful We toil to grow our food Ignorance made us hungry Information made us no good Every burden misunderstood So I swung my tassel To the left side of my cap Knowing after graduation There would be no going back And no congratulations From my faithful family Some of whom are already fasting To intercede for me Because it's hard to be a decent human being David Bazan formed the band Pedro the Lion, perhaps the first Christian indie rock band, in 1995. This former evangelical Christian now calls himself an agnostic with some lingering deistic notions. Bazan's wife and parents are still believing Christians. His new album "Curse Your Branches" is described as a break-up record with god.

So I have no peroration or clarion note on which to close. Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the "transcendent" and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives , and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you. I shall leave you with a few words from George Konrad, the Hungarian dissident who retained his integrity through some crepuscular times, and who survived his persecutors by writing Antipolitics and The Loser, and many other lapidary essays and fictions. (When, after the emancipation of his country and soceity, they came to him and offered him the presidency, he said "No, thanks.") He wrote this in 1987, when the dawn seemed a good way off: Have a lived life instead of a career. Put yourself in the safekeeping of good taste. Lived freedom will compensate you for a few losses.... If you don't like the style of others, cultivate your own. Get to know the tricks of reproduction, be a self-publisher even in conservation, and then the joy of working can fill your days. May it be so with you, and may you keep your powder dry for the battles ahead, and know when and how to recognise them. -Christopher Hitchens in his Letters to a Young Contrarian

How Do I Know Whether God Exists?

The problem is that belief in God does not seem to rest on any particular foundation. Most likely, you were raised with that belief, taught it as a child, and encouraged in it as you grew to maturity. You were taken to church or temple and naturally came to assume that the deity to which everyone referred, and to whom you yourself had often prayed, exists. But what is the evidence for that belief? How can you prove that your natural assumption is justified? A few people claim to have had God speak to them, but they are few and far between and are not always the most reliable witnesses. One popular proof of God's existence is the fact that the Bible tells us, over and over again, about God. But appealing to the Bible as evidence of God's existence presupposes just that sort of belief that is at issue, a logical fallacy often called "begging the question." Believing in God and believing that the Bible is the revealed word of God are two aspects of one and the same belief, and one cannot be used to prove the other. You may have "felt" God's presence, but feelings, too, must be justified, because sometimes they can be misleading. Sometimes you sense danger when there is no danger, and, in the same way, it is possible to have a religious feeling without that proving the feeling refers to anything outside of you. Indeed, the very nature of God, according to many theorists and theologians, is such that God "transcends" the world and is outside of our experience. God cannot be seen or sensed as such, and that is why it is necessary to believe in God. If God could simply be presented to us, like a statue or a person, such a powerful notion of belief would not be necessary. A different way of putting the same point is to say that believing in God is a matter of faith and not a matter knowledge. But many believers have refused to accept the idea that this most important belief is not part of our knowledge in the strongest sense. How can our most important belief not also be the best known? Accordingly, much of the history of theology has been devoted to the project of proving God's existence. The idea is not to replace faith or undermine the need to believe, but rather supplement faith and belief with a demonstration that they are indeed justified and based on knowledge of the most secure kind. -from Twenty Questions by Bowie, Michaels, Solomon

Murderer's Montage

Murder Murder Murder Kill Kill Kill 현장엔 흥건한 피 피 피 가족에 눈에 내리는 비 비 비 남겨진 유품들 Let me see see see 수집한 증거물 Let me see see see 증거물일 술 담배를 권하는 손 많이 죽여야 사는 전쟁 게임을 만드는 손 어린 소녀의 볼을 쓰다듬는 나이든 손 인터넷 댓글란에 쓰레기를 투척하는 손 자식의 상처를 외면하는 무관심한 눈 약점을 샅샅이 찾아내는 비상한 눈 가벼운 병도 암으로 만드는 마법의 눈 능력과 외모로만 상대방을 심판하는 눈 영양이 파괴된 음식을 간 보는 입 예쁜 그녀를 수술침대로 꼬시는 입 사랑할 때 장갑을 끼지 않는 생식기와 거식과 폭식을 유발하는 잘빠진 bodyline 이 많은 살인도구 그러면 범인은 누구 조각해볼까 이 미친 살인마의 몽타주 술에 떡이 된 채 운전대를 붙잡은 손 아내와 자식들의 뺨을 세게 때리는 손 인생을 건 화투패를 돌리는 떨리는 손 황급히 뇌물을 숨기는 더러운 손 세상의 치부를 못 본척하는 합리적인 눈 친구의 고통조차 외면하는 이기적인 눈 동료를 짓밟고 올라서는 교활한 발 외국인 노동자를 걷어차는 잔인한 발 사람을 따돌리고 상처주는 혀 진실을 빼돌리고 사기치는 혀 본심과 다르게 눈치를 보며 끄덕이는 목 뒤틀린 이념의 헛된 이상을 노래하는 목 이 많은 살인도구 그러면 범인은 누구 조각해볼까 미친 살인마의 몽타주 용의자 1 그 불결한 두 손은 너의 것 용의자 2 그 역겨운 두 눈은 너의 것 용의자 3 그 냄새 나는 입은 너의 것 말해봐 나머지 증거물들은 대체 누구 것 나의 것 남을 찌르는 가시 같은 혀 나의 것 쉬어버린 목과 더러운 발 나의 것 너의 것 그들을 죽였던 완성된 몽타주의 주인공은 우리 나와 너

For years, when I went to renew my annual pass at the United States Senate, I was made to fill in two forms. The first asked me for my biographical details and the second stipulated that I had signed the former under penalty of perjury. I was grateful for the latter form, because when asked to state my "race" I always put "human" in the required box. This led to a yearly row. "Put 'white,'" I was once told-- by an African-American clerk, I might add. I explained that white was not even a color, let alone a race. I also drew his attention to the perjury provision that obliged me to state only the truth. "Put Caucasian,'" I was told on another occasion. I said that I had no connection with the Caucasus and no belief in the outmoded ethnology that had produced the category. So it went on until one year there was no race space on the form. I'd like to claim credit for this, though I probably can't. I offer you the story, also, as part of my recommendation that one acts bloody-minded as often as the odds are favorable and even sometimes when they are not: it's good exercise. -Christopher Hitchens in his Letters to a Young Contrarian

Karl Marx

Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sign of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusions about its condition is the demand to give up a condition that needs illusions. The criticism of religion is therefore in embryo the criticism of the vale of woe, the halo which is religion. Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man will wear the chain without any fantasy or consolation but so that he will shake off the chain and cull the living flower. -in his Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right