Militarized Police in America

The military like counterinsurgency tactics that police used to subdue peaceful and unarmed demonstrators at various Occupy Wall Street (OWS) encampments around the country have left many citizens shocked at the monstrous and evil treatment the police used against non-confrontational peaceful protestors…they were treated like enemy combatants in a war.  We see machine gun carrying policemen dressed in military like combat gear…military grade equipment and military tactics.

When your local police force is armed with military equipment and has a head fill of military tactics learned at seminars that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Defense (DoD) puts on for police forces all around the country, you may not want to attend any protests like OWS and possibly get disabled or killed.

They are teaching these tactics so the citizens right to peaceably protest anything our government does will be quickly smothered and others will be persuaded that it’s too dangerous to dissent.  If your friend or neighbor is sent to the hospital with a brain concussion for marching to protest government graft and incompetence…like OWS is…you might not go out on the next day’s march or protest.

Government does not like anyone to dissent from their use of power, to object to the illegal and/or underhanded things they do.  After all we are the world leaders in everything, and we have God on our side and cannot do any wrong.  If you don’t like it move to Russia or Iraq.  If you are a dissenter you are unpatriotic and probably a communist or socialist.  If you disagree with our government you need to die.

 

Heard or read sentiments like these have you?  Our American government Disinformation and Propaganda Bureau is on the job…heh–so is Fox News.

Anyway, the police forces were established to protect the peace and safety of its citizens and the community; not to use SS tactics on peaceful people who happen to be demonstrating.  Our military is created for killing foreign, hostile armed forces, the enemies of freedom, and the jackals who oppose our freedoms.  Today our police forces have military grade equipment and military tactical training; this is a disaster waiting to happen…remember the Kent State shootings; military armament and soldiers against ‘flower power’ civilians?  How about ‘Ruby Ridge’ and ‘Waco’; military might and tactics against civilians?

Ever hear those conspiracy theories about our armed forces being trained to kill their own countrymen?   You know like those soldiers in Egypt, Syria, and Libya did.

Exactly what type of military equipment is in the arsenal of police departments in America today?

The average patrol officer carries a usually semi-automatic handgun and perhaps a backup gun, a pepper spray canister, a taser, a baton or nightstick and handcuffs.  This is normal and expected, after all these men go into strange and deadly scenes with some regularity, they need to defend themselves.  Nowadays however, with having so many strategic alliances with the military and DHS agencies, the list of equipment has grown exponentially and it’s very deadly stuff.  The New York PD boasts that they can take down a 747 airliner.

In 1994 a Memorandum of Understanding between the Dept. of Justice and the Dept. of Defense authorized the transfer of military technology to local police departments around the country.  This was surplus equipment normally reserved for use in wartime.

As a result of equipment sharing the Department of Defense, by 1997, had handed over a million + military items to law enforcement agencies around the country. Among the items were almost 4,000 M-16s, 185 M-14s, 73 grenade launchers (grenade launchers for Christ’s sake) and over 110 armored personnel carriers.

At the end of 2005 nearly three quarters of a billion dollars worth of military grade equipment was distributed to some 17,000 police departments.  This included such things as over a thousand night-vision goggles, a few hundred more grenade launchers for Christ’s sake, almost 8,000 M-16 rifles, and some Blackhawk military, missile & 50 Cal. machine gun carrying helicopters…for Christ’s sake.

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After the War on Terror started and the Department of Homeland Security was created, the money started flowing rapidly to our police departments everywhere.  It helped with everyday equipment such as walkie-talkies, bulletproof vests, ammo and such, but it also started a run on really out there apparatus such as a 9 ton bullet proof vehicle called a Bearcat G3, that has gun ports, tear gas dispenser and a battering ram, and even weaponized drones…you know like they use in Afghanistan to spy on the bad guys from the air…I just had a flash day dream of drones using their Hellfire missiles to take out a OWS protest in Dallas….

I fear for my country

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Cost Of The War On Terrorism

A new report from Brown University has estimated that the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the counterinsurgency in Pakistan will end up costing 4 TRILLION dollars and leave around 225,000 dead civilians and soldiers. In addition over half a million disability claims have been filed with the VA.  It is estimated that over 8 million people have been displaced in the war-torn countries.  Full story

One also has to add to the cost of the wars; parts of our constitution, of which I think the largest loss is the right to privacy.  We have also lost our sense of dignity when we fly anywhere.  The sixth amendment–right to a speedy trial is going, as is Habeas corpus–the right to go before a judge and be heard and hear the charges against you.  We keep edging closer to a dictatorial government…it creeps in slowly so we don’t notice so much.  It’s kind of scary to lose so much.

Do you think we will have to give up wars because they cost to much?  One can only hope.

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Coming May 5th.–National Day of Prayer

This coming Thursday, May 5^th  is this year’s “National Day of Prayer”

I’m wondering what the Christian expectations are for this day, because last years was such a bust…after all I don’t think ANY of the good prayers were answered.

I expect a few million were praying for world peace or at least that American troops would be out of harm’s way in Afghanistan and Iraq.  From what I read, last year was the worst year of all for our troop deaths in the Middle East.  Also we seem to be party to an intrusion into Libya, just what we need another way of getting our finest sons and daughters killed.

Other things on our plate last year and early this year was the oil spill in the Gulf, very high gas prices, nuclear meltdown in Japan, thousands dead from earthquakes, the tsunamis in Japan that killed many thousands (count still going on from what I understand).  Africa is still losing tens of thousands of children to starvation and easily treatable diseases every year…there seems to be no end to this tragedy no matter what is done…by anyone.

America is suffering from record unemployment (as bad as the depression of the 1930’s), home foreclosures that put thousands of families on the street and welfare (this Republicans want to put a stop to).  Our countries deficit because of the wars and the incredibly disgustingly greedy bankers on Wall Street, is so high most people can’t even comprehend the vastness of the effect it will have on our future.

Aids is still rampant and in many countries women are still subjugated and treated as 3^rd. class property,  and still raped by the tens of thousands with virtual impunity. Often they themselves get into trouble and are held responsible for their own rape.  This is just int olerable…as humans we ought to be deeply ashamed that it still goes on.

The divorce rate in America has been hovering around 50% for years and years in America and seems to be impervious to prayer, and I have yet to hear of prayer affecting birth defects or limb amputations…our returning soldiers from the Middle East who have had legs and arms blown off by IED can’t seem to regrow those limbs no matter how hard they and their family pray.

So of the “good” prayers I imagine millions of people all over the country are going to  make…will ANY of them get answered?

I don’t think so.
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Christians Are Whiners

The Christian complains about an increasingly secular world, but the Republican Party is controlled by right wing evangelical fundamentalists.  No atheists allowed

The Air Force academy in Colorado is run by right wing evangelical fundamentalists. You either bend to what they want or you are an outcast and stand to lose your appointment.

“Evangelical Christians are at it again. The proselytizing only-through-Christ bunch have now taken up desecration of non-Christian religious sites: Not Jews this time but Wiccans. What the hell goes through the minds of these evangelicals who think they can tell other religions—at a military academy no less—what to believe? At their core, evangelicals who despise pluralism are infantile.”
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/02/03/christians-desecrate-wiccan-religious-site-at-air-force-academy/

The troops on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq are of the same family group of fundamentalists and they threaten the lives of atheist troops.

In most of the South and especially throughout the “Bible Belt” you are mostly a social outcast if you don’t fall into the dominant Christian group of your town- i.e. Baptist, Pentecostal, etc.

In the Middle East and Much of Asia if you decline membership in the Islamic religion you are a social outcast to 98 percent or more of the population…if you’re Jewish you are dead-meat.

In China the Christian believing population is exploding so fast the government is scrambling to keep up and control it.

In Australia the churches have access to school classes and it is smiled upon by the government.

So I’m just wondering where the hell Christians are getting this bit about secularism is getting worse and worse.  Maybe in Europe, where it is predicted that nine countries will go atheist in the next few years, but I certainly don’t see it in the rest of the world.

Christians are just a bunch of whiners anyway. 🙂

“None of today’s problems are caused by Atheists – just think about it.” Cobourg Atheists

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What I Learned in Bible School

In very late 2006 or very early 2007 some friends of mine convinced me that I should take a Bible study.  As my wife had within the previous few years took on the mantle of a professing Christian, the friends intimated that my following in her steps would be good for me and for my wife.  Having long been at least agnostic, and leaning very heavily towards atheism, I told them several times that they would probably be wasting theirs and my time.  Well they didn’t listen and they finally wore down my resistance.

I would meet with them once a week for what was supposed to be a 1 hour study. Inevitably that 1 hour stretched into 2 or 3 hours.  There was not one page of their study material that I did not question or have some legitimate objection too.  I was not trying to be difficult or mean to them—they were friends after all—but what they were saying and the stuff from the Bible just made no sense to me.  I was excited because I was finally laying out and writing down what was heretofore just a vague feeling or sense.  I was getting organized and I researched and researched everything, I was learning about the Christian history and its dogma…and it did not bode well for the Christians.  I started this blog in November of 2007 to try to keep some track of what I was learning.

I learned that the earth, sky, waters, animals, plants, and the human race are not roughly 6,000 years old. There is just too much conclusive evidence that this is not true

I learned that there was no Adam and Eve (4000+- BC) as portrayed in the Bible. There are thousands of anatomically modern skeletons and hundreds of thousands of human bones that go back hundreds of thousands of years.  There is no doubt, at all, that modern humanity did NOT begin 6000 years ago.  Then there are the tens of thousands of bones of human type species (Homo-erectus, Homo-habilis, Homo-neanderthal, etc.)  that did not make it through to our times, and they made and used tools and fire and there is some evidence of art.  They walked upright and didn’t live in trees and surely they were our long lost cousins.  I also learned that All of humanity alive today has their ultimate roots in Africa.  The fact that there was no Adam and Eve has tremendous consequences down the road.

I learned that there was never a whole earth covering flood (2350+- BC) that destroyed all of mankind except for a mythical man, his wife and three sons and their wives.  The evidence against the flood has been known since the 1700’s and keeps getting stronger as the years go by.  I learned that people keep searching this one mountain in modern day Turkey for remains of Noah’s Ark in vain and that at least 5 people have perpetrated a hoax on the public by announcing they have found the Ark. One person even doctored some wood planks at home to try to make them look old enough to have come from such a vessel.

I learned that there was never a Tower of Babel scenario (2000+- BC) such as told in Genesis.  We now know beyond a doubt that there were already millions of humans spread ALL over the earth at that time.  The Biblical story is nothing more than a fairy-tale, a crude attempt to try to explain the different languages that were spoken at the time the story was written.

I learned that Moses was probably a fictional character, as we know that the work attributed to him (The first five books of the Bible…the Pentateuch) was written by more than one person (3-4) and was probably written around 600-550 BC as a fictive work passed off as holy to bring the Hebrews tribes together again after the exile in Babylon.

I learned that the Exodus as described in the Bible is just a fairy tale. Archaeologists have been scouring the Sinai for over a hundred years looking for signs of at least a million people passing through and living on the land for 40 years…they have found Nothing!  They did find evidence of much earlier humans visiting and living there, but no Israelite signs from the era supported by the Bible story.  This also means that there was no exodus of Hebrews trodding across the Red/Reed Sea, no burning bush, no water spouting rock, no Ten Commandments carried down Mount Sinai, no golden calf, and no manna from heaven.

I learned that Joshua did NOT fight the battle of Jericho. Extensive archaeological work has determined that most all of the towns he was supposed to have squashed were already empty and in ruins at the time indicated in the Bible—both the 1400’s BC and the 1200’s BC theory. But then he was a fictional character anyway so it doesn’t matter.

I learned that Moses couldn’t have written at least some parts of Genesis because he wrote (probably in the 1400’s BC) that Abraham came from “Ur of the Chaldee’s” but we know from history that the Chaldeans did not control the city until around 600-500 BC.

Also Moses wrote that Abraham rescued Lot from the city of Dan which did not exist under that name at the time of Moses.  300 years later the town of Laish was captured by the tribe of Dan and renamed Dan.

I learned that God cannot defeat Iron Chariots used by us war-like humans.

I learned that God does not answer prayers…at least not of those with limb amputations.  Not once in all of recorded history has God ever restored some poor person’s amputated arms or legs and there have been many, many millions of people who have suffered this. You may even know someone from the armed forces who lost a limb or two in Iraq or Afghanistan…or Viet-Nam. The Bible tells us that Jesus raised the dead and threw out spirits or demons and healed some really bad diseases, and he himself was supposed to have risen from the dead, but no mention of limb re-growth anywhere.

I learned that God was really really mean. One mistake in the garden and He curses Adam and Eve and ALL the billions of their offspring to a miserable life with disease and famine and wars and all manner of horrible torture and deaths.  He orders the tribes of Israel to murder man, woman, and child of innocent villages or towns. He fire-bombs villages, He orders running thru pregnant women with swords, bashing babies skulls against the walls or rocks, beheading hundreds or thousands, tossing live people into the fires and who knows what else. And, the animal cruelty you don’t even want to know about.  All in all, the God as described in the Bible is a horrible figure…not God-like at all.  Of course we know that the entire God ordered killing was just the Hebrews way of conquering territory and booty.  There was no God to order all that murder and mayhem.

-end part 1

Warning: This video has a few cuss words…easily offended–don’t watch.

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War is a Racket

War is a racket and it always has been.

It is the oldest, most vicious, and most profitable con that governments all over the world use. Some wars are probably warranted, such as the war against Hitler and the Japanese empire. Some are just totally unjustified ways of killing off our children in the pursuit of some perverse national objective or business for relatives, friends, or business associates…such as the Vietnam and Iraq/Afghanistan debacles.

Politicians of all stripes and parties routinely lie and mislead their constituents and the whole country into believing a big lie, not admitting even to themselves that they are leading innocent people to their death and wide spread redistribution of money from taxpayers to government coffers and ultimately to their friends (and their own) bank accounts.  It is cold and cruel and calculated evil of the first order and it doesn’t seem to faze any politicians at all.

The only ones to profit are politicians, businesses, and bankers.  The profits are dollars…the losses are the deaths of our children and tens of thousands, or more, civilians who have the misfortune to be in the way. The general public pays…a few evil people make billions and the propaganda campaigns distort the actual truths so no one is held responsible for the carnage.

The real but not advertised toll of wars are newly placed gravestones, shattered minds, mangled bodies, broken homes, broken hearts, depression, economic instability, and mind-boggling tax bills for our future generations and all of these combine and contribute  to our sense of constant struggle and loss of stability in our lives.  We have a predatory government that feeds on its citizens.

For the very few the racket of war brings immense profits, but as always the cost of the operation of war is paid by us…the people who keep getting bamboozled.

Kind of reminds me of the Wall Street bailout too.  We take the losses…the billionaires take the profit.

In our current war with Iraq and Afghanistan compare what’s happening or happened there and go ahead and get really mad.  Our past and present (Bush/Obama) presidents have totally wasted billions and billions (some say Trillions) of dollars, but more importantly thousands and thousands of our young and bright sons and daughters in a useless and criminally misguided campaign. Does the word Vietnam bring back any memories to you? (We lost that one too).  And do you know what we get out of it…for the average person nothing but a tremendous tax bill that our children and grandchildren will still be paying for when we are dead and buried.

The government has effectively mortgaged our and our baby’s souls to pay for this.  We are nothing but a future source of income for the feds.

Think of what you have been duped into believing and check out the facts that both the Vietnam war and the Iraq/Afghanistan war were sold to us by our elected officials by using known falsehoods and manipulated data. Look at your Senators and Congress person and even your president…do they look concerned that thousands of our young people and as much as a million civilians in Iraq/Afghanistan have been killed in Iraq/Afghanistan? Ask them for honest opinions and see what you get.

These were/are not wars to secure American freedoms, rather they are wars of profit for a selected few…they have done nothing but divide our people, kill our young, and disillusion the nation.

How long will we as a people put up with getting swindled by our own government?

Quote of the day
“Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarreled with him?”—Blaise Pascal

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Protestants who are reminded of their religion do more good deeds and trust that other people will do so, as well. But when Catholics are reminded of their religion, they do less public service and are less trusting that others will do so.  Cornell News Service

Tehran, Iran:  Morals squads venture forth once more to police the cosmopolitan, fashionable and uninhibited in the name of religion.  Yale Global Online

Former first lady Laura Bush revealed in an interview this week that she supports the legalization of same-sex marriage and abortion. The Christian Post