Deception @ MindSay

Here is an article of a program , which was aired on 60 minutes in 2003, I never heard about it before, after reading this article I find that I am extremely saddened and angry  but not surprised, over this. The ONLY difference between our country the USA and other countries is that we say and preach that we are "a Christian Nation" or that we are" a  humane nation" or that we are for peoples "rights and equality, and for democracy". and then behind everyone's backs we terrorise other countries and torture people. The other nations of the world for the most part do not claim SAINTHOOD as does the USA and so anything they do that many of us would think was bad, terrible, inhumane,etc. is in many respects never a surprise but expected, we know that these other nations are capable of doing many things that we consider bad , we are not surprised for example, at the actions of Russia with their own people or other nations, we are not surprised at what the Arab nations do to their own and others, we are not surprised what China does to their own and others, it is pretty much a given we know them to be  the wolves that they are and therefor we can take steps to protect ourselves if we can and if need be, why? because they do not preach one thing and do the other they stay in character. But the USA ,on the other hand, like many preachers and salesmen, they speak  a good talk and but deliver lies and deceptions,they are wolves in sheep clothing, that is why it is so much more wrong.  Our word , our character, is pretty much all we really have and if we can not keep it well and be honorable with others, we do harm to ourselves and others.

I do not believe most if not all of our Government, the leaders, our so called Representatives, Senators, Judges and President are the best examples of people who keep their word, and have good characters.Although they speak big on human rights, non torture, and equality and freedom for all in a Democratic Union, their actions always speak louder, than their smooth talk. In this day , where we have access to up to the minute news and information globally, the days of deception  should be , behind us, but I fear that they will continue  fixing these leaks of their true character on the Internet, by providing better ways to hide their lies and deception within our access of news and information, by the continued taking over  of all the outlets that are responsible for dishing it out to us. It is not a Conspiracy Theory, when you have the facts. Over the years we have been given many facts of our Government actions of their political career opportunists, our Politicans, by our sanctioning torture, going to war unprovoked, 9/11 ,etc..........

Many conservatives, and Right wingers ,even with  the many facts ,continue to close their eyes to the true nature of our government, they fail to see the wolf  in sheep clothing, I just fear what it will take for their blinders to be removed.

blessed be

 

June 13, 2003

Diego Garcia: Exiles Still Barred Forced-Out Residents Still Can't Go Home

by Rebecca Leung

 The military base employs several thousand civilians but bars anyone who used to live on the island from working there. (CBS) The Indian Ocean atoll of Diego Garcia is currently a U.S. base for B-52 bombers and other military weapons. (CBS) Previous slide Next slide 01(CBS) Four decades ago, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union were racing to get footholds in this region, the U.S. discovered Diego Garcia, a coral island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The Americans had asked the British, their longtime allies, who still had colonies in the region, to find an uninhabited island for their base. There was just one problem -- there were inhabitants on Diego Garcia and they have been living there for more than 200 years. Correspondent Christiane Amanpour reports. But the British didn't see that as a problem. They simply moved all the inhabitants 1,200 miles away to other tropical islands, Mauritius and the Seychelles. Back then when the island was a British colony, Marcel Moulinie managed the coconut plantation. He was ordered to ship the people out. “Total evacuation. They wanted no indigenous people there," says Moulinie. "When the final time came and the ships were chartered, they weren't allowed to take anything with them except a suitcase of their clothes. The ships were small and they could take nothing else, no furniture, nothing." The people of Diego Garcia say they left paradise and landed in hell when they were dumped here in the urban slums of Mauritius. They had brought no possessions and as islanders who had lived off fishing and farming they had no real professional skills. No one helped them resettle or pay for the homes they lost. They were forced to become squatters in a foreign land. Before the final evacuation, the British had cut off the ships carrying food and medicine to Diego Garcia. Jeannette Alexis' family was one of the last to leave: "My father was told that we had to leave the island because the Americans were moving in and it wasn't safe to remain on the island anymore." The islanders say the other force that got them out was fear when British officials ordered their pets to be exterminated. They were gassed with exhaust fumes from American military vehicles. "You can imagine the pressure it put on the population there," says Alexis. "We were crying, we were hanging onto our mothers' skirts crying, because although we were very young we understood that we were leaving something very valuable behind, and that was our home." And for the next 30 years, the world never knew what happened to Diego Garcia's original people. No outsiders are allowed onto Diego Garcia, so this secret stayed hidden until one of the exiled islanders, Olivier Bancoult, started organizing his community. Bancoult was angry by the years of misery his people were forced to endure. Three of his own brothers drank themselves to death, dispirited by their poverty and unemployment. And one sister was so homesick she committed suicide. "That's very sad, that's why I will never give up," says Bancoult. "All the difficulty is because of U.S. and UK, they turned peoples' life into a nightmare." So three years ago, Olivier traveled to London to take the British government to court. His big break came when he and his lawyer, Richard Gifford, found secret documents that had recently been declassified that described the agreement between the United States and British governments to build the base on Diego Garcia. "Here we have the legal expert in the foreign office, in which he's got a paragraph headed, maintaining the fiction," says Gifford, referring to the fiction that Diego Garcia had no native people. These British documents reveal that colonial officials thought no one would notice if they deported the islanders. "I find it rather shameful, yes," says Gifford. "Here we have an interesting memorandum of the British Government: There will be no indigenous population except seagulls." Another British document confirms that "evicting the people and leaving the island to the seagulls" was done at the request of the United States. It reads: "The United States Government will require the removal of the entire population of the atoll by July." "And the British were only too happy to oblige," says Gifford. What did the British get in return for providing the Americans a population-free island? Polaris missiles for their submarines. The U.S. reduced the price by $14 million dollars, or $5 million British pounds. "So five million pounds was a massive incentive compared with a very modest conscience problem," says Gifford. Uncovering the paper trail brought Gifford and Bancoult a stunning victory. Britain's highest court ruled that deporting Diego Garcia's native population was illegal. But the euphoria didn't last long because the court didn't propose a remedy -- neither money nor what the people wanted most - to return home and have the right to earn a living on the base. "The position of the islanders is that they never objected to the U.S. base on Diego, but the islanders are extremely bitter that they are denied employment on the base. Precisely because they come from there," says Gifford. The base currently employs several thousand civilian workers from other countries like the Philippines - and they don't want visitors. When the islanders asked to visit their family graves, they were told from the British government that the U.S. had to grand permission. So last August, the islanders appealed directly to President Bush. The Bush administration, however, said it was Britain's call: "Because of the vital role the facility plays in the global war on terrorism, British authorities have denied permission to visit Diego Garcia. We concur and support the decision." Caseem Uteem, the former president of Mauritius, had written the letter to President Bush on behalf of the islanders. He believes that both sides are passing the buck. "That's what they're doing," says Uteem. "I think it is not only inhuman but illegal. They should never have expelled them from their land." Neither the British nor the U.S. governments would talk to 60 Minutes about the issue, but the former commander of the base on Diego Garcia spoke to Amanpour. “I have a great sympathy for them,” says Dan Urish. “I think the British are probably legally responsible for it. Morally, the U.S. certainly has an interest in seeing that things are made right for the islanders.” Until that happens, Olivier Bancoult, Jeannette Alexis and the rest of the islanders say they will never give up. Now they are suing both the U.S. and British Governments for compensation and the right to return. "It's an important base, I agree, but at the same time they should have realized that people are also important," says Alexis. "The Americans and the British always talk about the champions of human rights. What they did to us they should rectify, they should look after us. You know, they should do what they preach."

I can't freakin' believe it's November, already.  One of the supreme injustices in life is that time seems to go by much faster, the less of it you have left.

So.

Election Day is just a couple squares away on my calendar.  I've already voted.  (Let's hear it for "permanent absentee" status.)  And here in California, we're facing the single most controversial social ballot issue ever.  Proposition 8, which would add an amendment to our state Constitution removing the right of same-sex couples to marry.

It is a very heated issue, and I'm absolutely boggled by the blatant lies being put forth by the Yes on 8 campaign.  A friend of mine, who is now 18 and will be voting in her very first election, has apparently been suckered into the lies.  She's very gay-friendly and not a Christian, but has been told that if Prop. 8 fails, churches could be shut down for not performing same-sex marriages.  This is, of course, absolutely false.

The deceptions being done by this side of the argument are many, and it does nothing but reinforce in my mind how low the religioso will go in order to assert their views on others.  Not one person has ever been able to sensibly state what they mean by "protecting marriage."  It's all a bunch of bullshit.  Religious bullshit, for that matter, and as such, has no place influencing the laws. 

It's going to be a very close one, it seems.  And frankly, it might pass.  And while that thought makes my literally sick to my stomach, I take some solace in knowing that it won't last long.  It will be repealed, eventually, and sooner rather than later.

Constitutions, folks, are meant to be about what the government can and cannot do... not what the citizens can or cannot do.  We once added an amendment to the federal Constitution to limit what citizens could do.  It was called Prohibition.  And we all know how well that worked, and that it didn't last.  That should have been a lesson (or two) to us, but we Americans are, as a whole, fucking obtuse.

But the sad thing is, so many people do. Grown adults. About 9 years ago my parents saw this infomercial with this guy selling a juicer. He was talking about the benefits of drinking pure fruit juice and how meat is bad because it is dead & whatnot. That I have no problem with. But he also said that beef specifically is the worst, and that it stays in your body for years. THAT is what you call rediculous. Food doesn't stay in your body for years, we have stomach acids that break things down. So after seeing that, they decided that our whole family wasn't going to eat beef anymore. For I while we believed it, believe that that's why we all only took a dump every 3 weeks. But that wasn't the reason. You know why that was really? Because we ate fuckin' McDonalds every other day!! And that's proven to be damaging to your health in a short amount of time. Of course if you eat out alllll the time, you are not going to be in good health, and might have stomach problems.

 

That was right before we moved into our new house. When we moved there, my mom stopped working so she started cooking more. We also didn't have money to go out to eat all the time anymore because of the mortgage. So in turn, our general health improved. I don't think it had anything to do with not eating beef.

In 4th grade a friend of mine invited me to her house, and I ate this sausage sandwich with an unknown meat in it. Later on my stomach hurt so bad I couldn't sleep. We deduced that it must have been beef. Now I'm thinking that they either didn't cook it thoroughly, or they were dirty.

 

One time in musical we hadn't eaten the whole day, and this girl brought in some beef sausages. I ate them because I was hungry, and guess what? Nothing happened! My parents have been telling us for years that if we go back to eating beef our stomachs will hurt because we're "not used to it", which makes no sense. If that were so, we wouldn't be able to eat new foods. But anyway, that was the first time. Then I was at my uncle's house and they had beef burgers on the grill. I decided to eat one, nothing happened. I told my family about that, they kept harping on it forever, and said it was nasty, when meanwhile they're eating pig, chicken, & turkey all the time. What's the difference? So then me & my grandma got some beef hotdogs. Then I saw that she had this slab of London Broil in the freezer, and it looked sooo good, so she made that about 4 days ago, and it was. And the icing on the cake, the MOUSSE on the cake, the confectioner's glaze, it makes me smile ear-to-ear as I think of it, the next day I got a Big Mac. It was one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted, maybe because I hadn't tasted it in almost 10 years.

All I know is I keep thinking about it, which only goes to show, banning something is never the best route to take, it's much better to use moderation. I plan on getting another one as soon as possible, without my parent's finding out (yeah I know I shouldn't give a fuck, but you know how that is).

I thought this could be useful for us here at Mindsay, especially during the political season. I've also included a list of interesting and informative websites for your enjoyment. For some reason, they are not showing up correctly. I'll post them in the comment section until I can figure out what is going on.

How shameful. 

But how can you fault a foolish christian for believing it.

I wish I could pretend that my life was important and special to a supreme being.

It would be nice.

It would be... magical.

But unfortunately, nothing is special.

We aren't any more special that a sponge.

Or a hydrogen atom.

Or a meteor collision with titan.

Or the crab nebulae.

Or a cubic foot of material 7,462 meters below a spot about a mile southwest of mount hood.

Everything is just baryons, and hadrons, and gluons (maybe), and the rest of that big family of very tiny bosons.

Big deal.

But if you want your life to be special, believe that there is something real that has ultimate authority and makes it special.

But that's stupid the same way that some people (still) believed that the world was flat objectively.

Stupid fuckers.