Starvation @ MindSay

supposedly, all sins are supposed to be considered 'equal' and no sin is worse than the other, right?
why is fornication legal, but gay marriage isn't?

christians have the right to their own beliefs, and i do respect that. that does not mean they have the right to shove it down other peoples' throats.

why is it that we are guaranteed freedom of religion in america, yet so many republicans think that our laws should be based on god's rules? christian rules.
why is it that we are guaranteed freedom of speech, but once we do, we get pushed aside?

oh yeah, and what happened to love your neighbor?




why is it that most of the christians i talk to, take pride in the fact that they've never even read the Bible, yet they bash 'sinners' and 'abominations.'
just a show of hands, how many people have even paid attention in church?

why is it that when people confront me about vegetarianism, the first thing they say is 'the bible says i can eat all the meat that i want.





you realize that saying that only gives me more of a reason to bash the bible? i don't expect everyone to agree with me on these issues, but i do expect you to respect my decision.
also, i never saw anything that said 'eat all the meat you want' so when you reference it, please use the correct line. it makes you look like less of an ignorant asshole :) just saying.

why is it that i can make a Jesus joke, and everyone will shoot me a dirty look, but the same people laugh their ass off when they watch an episode of South Park?




and it amuses the hell out of me when people that rap about sex and drugs can win an award, and then the first person they thank is jesus.

rude, racist, sexist, two-faced, preverted, homophobic... just to name a few traits of most of the good Jesus-loving people that surround me everyday :)

and for the record, from what i understand, you don't go to heaven just for showing up every sunday and pretending to care about what your preacher has to say. you're expected to follow the rules just like everyone else.
in fact, you don't even have to go to church on sundays.

why is it that you're more concerned with hurting other people, and less concerned with this?

I have been watching the news lately, about the tragedy in Burma. The hurricane that swept though that country a few short weeks ago, left tens of thousands of people homeless and without food. The fields have been flooded ever since and the water simply will not drain. Crops are failing one after the other and the people who are displaced number in the tens of thousands.

There is no fresh drinking water and of course, this leads to massive outbreaks of disease. Let me just be very clear about this: Tens of thousands of people are dead and even more are homeless, starving and ravaged by diseases that shouldn't even be on the radar.

Where is the aid? Where is the food that the world wants to give? Where is the water and the what has happened to the shelters that have been made ready for these people? It is easy to think that the government of Burma has held up the rescue efforts of the world. It is easy to say that we can't get permission to go in and deliver the goods. The truth is that we have invaded countries for doing less harm to their people. We have toppled governments for less than this. We invaded Eye-raq to free the people from an evil dictator and yet, we let this regime go on killing the poor people of Burma.

we have warships loaded with rescue supplies, standing idle off the coast, doing nothing while people die needlessly, just a few kilometres away.

Where is our humanity now?

Where is our honour now?

Be ashamed of yourselves all of you, for not protesting this. I am.

This may be something that is difficult to believe for some people in a country that for so many years has helped to feed the world. But it is true and is happening to millions of Americans every day.

Over 35.5 million found hungry in 2006
By HOPE YEN,
Associated Press Writer

More than 35.5 million people in this country went hungry in 2006 as they struggled to find jobs that can support them, a figure that was virtually unchanged from the previous year, the Agriculture Department said Wednesday.

Single mothers and their children were among the most likely to suffer, according to the study.

The 35.5 million people represented more than 1 in 10, or 12.1 percent, who said they did not have enough money or resources to get food for at least some period during the year, according to the department's annual hunger survey. That is compared with 35.1 million people who made similar claims in 2005.

"This is encouraging, but we know we have more work to do," said Kate Houston, USDA's deputy undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services. She said the numbers aren't much different from 2005, which saw a decline after five straight years of increases.

Of the 35.5 million people, 11.1 million reported they had "very low food security," meaning they had a substantial disruption in the amount of food they typically eat. For example, among families, a third of those facing disruption in the food they typically eat said an adult in their family did not eat for a whole day because they could not afford it.

"No one in America should go hungry," Houston said.

The survey was based on Census Bureau data and does not include the homeless. About three-quarters of a million people were homeless on a given day in 2005, according to federal estimates.

Among the findings:

_Among families, about 12.6 million, or 10.9 percent, reported going hungry for at least some period last year. Those disproportionately reporting hunger were single mothers (30.4 percent); black households (21.8 percent); Hispanic households (19.5 percent); and households with incomes below the official poverty line (36.3 percent).

_States with families reporting higher prevalence of hunger from 2004-2006 included: Mississippi (18.1 percent); New Mexico (16.1 percent); Texas (15.9 percent); and South Carolina (14.7 percent).

_Of the 35.5 million people reporting periods of hunger last year, 12.6 million were children.

"This report comes at a critical time for hungry Americans and those of us who help serve them," said Vicki Escarra, president of the nation's largest hunger relief group — America's Second Harvest-The Nation's Food Bank Network. "There simply may be no food for many families when the rest of the nation gathers to celebrate Thanksgiving and religious holidays."

In the report, the terms "low food security" and "very low food security" replace the old descriptions of "food insecurity without hunger" and "food insecurity with hunger." The change was made last year based on a recommendation by the National Academies, which advise the government on science issues, a move that has drawn criticism by some Democrats who say the report speaks too euphemistically.

Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger group, said he is troubled by the report. He said "figures for 2007 could prove to be worse, given rising food prices and an uneven economy this year."

"We need to do more to make sure that households have access to healthy food by improving and expanding proven programs that help." he said.

Do you know of someone in need or want to do something to help ? Go to America’s Second Harvest–The Nation’s Food Bank Network. There you can find assistance for someone in need or provide assistance and support for those in need. There is also a local food bank locator where you can find food banks in your area if you prefer, to donate funds or a little bit of your time. Simply enter your zip code or state and click the 'GO' button.

Don't let another American go hungry.

If you would, please pass this on to everyone you know. This is not just something to think about for the upcoming holiday and other holiday's, but for every day of the year.

Thank You and God Bless You.

All American Idol fans will appreciate this story:  a teenager girl on MySpace went on a 16-day hunger strike to protest Sanjaya still being on American Idol.  After 16 days, she finally realized that she was protesting Sanjaya, and came to her senses.  Now she'll be protesting Sanjaya by voting for all the other contestants.

My cat has taken to devouring books. Literally, she  generally starts with the cover and has a definite preference for shiny paperbacks. After she chomps off a corner and spits it out  it is  , in cat terms” Marked” as hers and there is no dissuading her from continued attention. She just can’t put a book down and now neither can I. For over a year she ignored the books piled on the bed stand but something about the way the corners of Victoria’s Daughters curled or smelled or tasted caught her attention and now I must hide  what I am reading.

 

 

Fortunately  she only does this to books I am currently reading. We have stacks and stacks of books ( mostly hard covered which don’t appeal to her wholesale little temperament) sitting in  one room which is yet to be filled with built-in bookcases  and aptly named the library, and she never bothers those books. And even now that I am finished with Victoria and told her outright that she can have at it, she has moved on to a tiresome fat slug of a novel by Fannie Flagg that has given me a headache reading because it’s for a book group that I began and I want to look good spirited so I decided I would read it even though by page 23 I knew it was doomed. Oh it’s sweet and one section is even mildly interesting but the novel goes no deeper than the newsy Neighbor Dorothy that drives the book and one doesn’t get past the superficial gossip level with any of the characters. But now I am conscience free to return to Love for Lydia and then another Kawabata novel. Maybe I will read the Makioka Sisters too as I loved the film. And then maybe go back to pre WW1 Germany. Sigh. Tomorrow I will actually make a half ass attempt at cleaning the house and getting some curtains started and then I I have to start hardware wars again to repair the garden room closet and hang the curtains and consider making all new window coverings for the guest room in the old woman fabric that toni said is really nice. I am still not sure. And do I paint the dining room blue or red?  Please write and tell me. I REALLY need to know. red or blue ? and what shade of blue?

 

And yes people in Darfur are dying and I am thinking about paint colors and did the electrician get my message?  And I have several calls to make but with my fanny flagg headache it was the last thing I wanted to do. Oh I will quote scarlet o’hara and go to bed. Night all.