This clip was the first attempt to upload this video. It has now been listed simply as “Carl Miller 1 Pt.1-11” it took 11 parts to upload the entire first VHS tape. I’m leaving this one up since it’s had so many views and will help attract interest A GREAT Course on the Constitution & The Bill of Rights Produced Years Ago By Carl Miller. Originally a 3 part VHS series over 5 hours teaching you how to stand up for your rights. This will take days to upload check back daily for more, Thanks Carl for your teaching it’s helped a lot over the years.
Carl Miller 1 On The Constitution & The Bill Of Rights
St. James, Life Church to represent Augusta in softball tournament
St. James, Life Church to represent Augusta in softball tournament
Augusta, Kan. — The St. James (Blue) Catholic Church and Life Church softball teams will compete in the state softball tournament at the Fun Valley Sports Complex in Hutchinson this Friday and Saturday.
Read more on The Augusta Daily Gazette
Freedom From Fear Vs. Fear of Freedom
Do I feel free? I don’t think so. Freedom is not just a potential opportunity to do the things that one openly chooses to do, because most human actions are predicated on primal instincts such as fear. Moreover, most of the things that one makes others do are done out of fear. Of course they include not only fear, but also love and other passions, though fear stands out as the most significant component in the motivation for one’s actions.
I can justify this statement by simply analyzing the fact that fear is a major factor that survives across generations throughout the entire span of biological evolution as a result of natural selection. Organisms that experience more fear and are more aware of their surroundings express due diligence and caution in their actions and responses, thereby avoiding more life-threatening dangers. In their aversion they are sustaining their bloodline, or rather their genetic contributions to future generations, and ultimately increase their Darwinian Fitness (pass their genes to the next generation). We can assume that our ability to experience fear is a result of lengthy evolution. Christophe Lambert, in his book “La société de la peur” (“The Society of Fear”), argues that modern society is based on fear. It could be the fear of financial losses, unemployment, or inability to support one’s family, but it also can include the fear of solitude, fear of growing old, fear of sickness, and of course the fear of death. Lambert makes a strong statement that modern society provokes most of this fear by imposing competitive values and an intense pace of life. One of his major concerns is television, which he calls “le ‘nouvel’ opium du peuple” (“the new opium of the people”). Once it started as a very positive feature of life in the early 1950s, extending the horizons and the abilities of common people to acquire knowledge about other nations and about world events, but with time it has become so manipulative that it is difficult for the viewer to distinguish between truth and drama. Lambert mentions that society at the beginning of the twenty-first century still remembers the consequences of attempts to fulfill the utopian ideals of some questionable minds of the twentieth century: Nietzsche, Marx, and Freud.
Nietzsche continued to explore concerns with the existence of God, and therefore finished the work of the philosophers of the Enlightenment and the philosophers of the French revolution. By stating that “God is dead” he started a deep crack in the once-solid belief in the Almighty. He also created the concept of the “superman” that provided the foundation for Nazi attempts to improve the human race.
Karl Marx created a utopian economic theory by criticizing the old brand of capitalism of the nineteenth century, but he also made false predictions about the future development of class struggle which ultimately laid the basis for numerous communist states. This almost led to global nuclear war and a complete extinction of the human species.
Sigmund Freud, probably the most innocent of this trio, developed a theory of the subconscious, arguing that most people’s motivations are based on aggression and libido. This laid the groundwork for a series of sexual revolutions which occurred in the decades of the ‘20s, ‘50s, ‘70s, and ‘80s of the twenty-first century. Most likely Freud didn’t do much damage on a global scale and was also quite successful in developing methods of psychoanalytical theories. But we cannot ignore the likelihood that his ideas had a certain influence on the rate of divorce and jeopardized the institution of the family by diminishing the value of people’s relationships, bringing them down to the “libido-aggression” level.
Christophe Lambert, once again, brings up the statistics of divorce rates in France, which have grown 400% in the last forty years. According to other statistics, 1 in every 3 marriages in the United States ends in divorce. Solitude, absence of family support, confusing religious beliefs, indefinite sexual relationships, and frustrating and scary media provide a full portrait of our fears in a nutshell.
How is it possible to obtain freedom from fear? The only way that I can see is to combat the factors that create fear, the factors that we have analyzed above. In order to combat solitude we must learn to build our relationships on a mutual basis and not to expect more than the other party can give. This even though (as Lambert argues) the internet is separating people rather than connecting them, because it eliminates personal contact. Personally I cannot agree with this statement, because the Internet today allows video conversations and very intense socialization, even with the most distant parts of the world. So I would argue that we should praise the Internet as a wonderful medium for building great relationships and making new friends, because avenues now exist to meet professional colleagues and start relationships with total strangers, which would not otherwise be possible. We also must admit that the Internet is a safe way to do this, in so far as it is not possible to cause any harm in a physical way through such virtual means of communication.
We cannot diminish the importance of the basic needs of each and every individual to have some sort of system of belief that may or may not be based on conventional religious ideas. It doesn’t matter whether the individual chooses to be a believer or an atheist, but it is very important that he build a system of beliefs that he will feel comfortable with and then stay consistent with.
Lambert further argues that the main occupation of modern society is consumption. “Sex idols” have become a commodity not unlike oil, wheat, and sugar. In the same way that excessive consumption of sugar is not good for one’s health and may even cause diabetes, excessive consumption of “sex idols” is not good for your soul or your family and will eventually leave you in a state of isolation and solitude. Alain Delon, the famous French actor who ruled women’s hearts all over the world for almost half a century, now spends his days completely alone in the pleasant company of his three dogs and one cat, as the magazine “Paris Match” reports to its readers. When he was asked in an interview why he is not happy and why he is alone, he answered: “I wasn’t programmed for happiness. I was programmed for success.” Those two things don’t always come hand in hand. Therefore, the world is starting to turn its eyes from the wild promiscuity of the ‘70s and ‘80s to old-fashioned family values that we may choose to adopt in order to obtain freedom from fear of solitude and isolation.
It is important to move towards the restoration of the old-fashioned family values that have been destroyed in the wake of industrialization and post- industrialization. Emancipation, which granted equal rights to both sexes, also has a dark side in that it has deprived women of their privileges as the weaker gender which many women would love to restore. Society, in the era of total emancipation, has failed to provide basic childcare and educational services on a level comparable to that which could be insured by active parental involvement. There is a need to build strong family relationships using compromises and by expressing sincere interest in the problems and beliefs of your loved ones. This can provide us with at least a slight hope of not finding ourselves in old age suffering from solitude and isolation.
I believe that by limiting exposure to the media we may substantially reduce our level of fear and anxiety. We don’t realize how strongly we are influenced by the images we see on TV. One young woman who resides in a tiny French village was interviewed by TF1 and reported that she experienced a lot of fear. When asked why she felt this fear she answered, “Avec tout ce que l’on voit à la télé on a des raisons d’avoir peur” (“With all this that one can watch on TV, one has reasons to have fear”). If TV is negatively impacting the lives of modest inhabitants in distant villages, what can we expect from people living in the frenzy of modern cities?
Protecting ourselves from excessive exposure to the media might reduce our tendency to sink into consumerism, and therefore protect us from an obsession with consumption as the main focus of our lives. In abandoning consumerism as a lifestyle, we may be surprised to realize how few things a person really needs to support their existence.
When we manage to achieve freedom from fear, however, we will need to find a way to overcome our fear of freedom, because there is really nothing to fear but fear itself. The only question that remains is, are we ready to face the possibilities of a free existence?
Bruce Kriger is a prolific scientific writer whose work has been published in a number of languages. He is a member of several associations including: the Canadian Science Writers’ Association, the Canadian Philosophical Association, the International Academy of Science, the World Future Society, the National Space Society and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and Planetary Society.
Vanunu on Faith Before Final Court Date of 2
[East Jerusalem] On July 8, 2008, the final act in Mordechai Vanunu’s current trials plays out, when Israel either puts Vanunu behind bars for six more months, or “something else” as Vanunu wrote.
Mordechai Vanunu’s historic freedom of speech trial began in January 2006.
In July 2007, Israel convicted him on 14 [out of over a hundred interviews with foreign journalists] counts of violating the court order prohibiting him from speaking to any foreigners since his 2004 release from 18 years in prison for exposing Israel’s secret nuclear weapons program in 1986.
A possible something else that had been hoped for, was that Israel would be led by true friends to accept the Norwegians offer of asylum http://www.vanunu.org/ and allow Vanunu to leave the state which is all he has wanted to do since he emerged from Ashkelon prison on April 21, 2004.
On July 1, 2008 I received the following email reply from Norway:
Subject: Reply on your email concerning Vanunu
Dear Ms Fleming
Thank you for your email dated 12 July 2008 addressed to Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre concerning Mordechai Vanunu.
The Norwegian authorities have been following Mr Vanunu’s case for many years, and will continue to do so.
Norway has on several occasions raised the case of Mr Vanunu in bilateral talks with Israel and has emphasised that he must not be subject to any form of injury or insulting behaviour. We have also stressed that his human rights, including his rights of speech and movement, must be respected.
When Mr Vanunu was released from prison in 2005, a number of restrictions were placed upon him following decisions by Israeli judges. Norway recognises the Israeli juridical system and will act in accordance with their decisions.
Mr Vanunu’s application for asylum to Norway was sent by letter from Israel. As it is not possible to apply for asylum from abroad, his application was turned down on 21 May 2008 on formal grounds.
There are no restrictions on the part of Norway that prevent Mr Vanunu from visiting the country if it should be appropriate for him to do so.
Yours sincerely
Thomas Rem Berdal
Middle East Section
Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The first time I crossed paths with Vanunu was in the courtyard of St. Georges Cathedral in June 2005, during my first of five trips to Israel Palestine. The last time I crossed paths with Vanunu was July 2007, nearby St. Stephen’s Dominican Church on Nablus Road.
Vanunu smiled when he told me,” This is the spot where they stoned to death the first Christian martyr for freedom of speech.”
It had been two weeks since Vanunu received the bad news of a six month sentence for speaking to foreign media –he is allowed to speak to Israeli journalists- but he wasn’t talking to any media because, “All the interviews I have given haven’t helped me.”
In 2005, the first of my three video interviews with Vanunu addressed the fact that President Bush could find WMD’s in Israel and not Iraq and how his faith helped him endure 18 years in jail for telling the truth.
Vanunu also told me stories that I wrote down about his childhood in an orthodox Jewish home in Morocco, adolescent rejection of the faith, the misery he saw as a sergeant in the IDF, university activism for Palestinian human rights, and how he happened to be baptized a Christian just days before being kidnapped, clubbed, drugged and locked up for 18 years because of the photographic evidence he provided of Israel’s secret underground nuclear weapons program in the Negev. [1]
Vanunu can be articulate, funny, and patient and a moment later; detached, distant and withdrawn. It is an honor to me that he continues to respond to my questions and what follows are his replies from June 2008, slightly edited for clarity.
E: Now that North Korea seems serious about foregoing its nuclear weapons what do you say in light of Israel’s secret nuclear activities?
V: The time is now for the US and the entire world to speak very clear and loudly about Israel’s ‘secret’ nuclear weapons. They locked me up for 18 years for exposing them, but they get away with nuclear ambiguity because the world is afraid they will be accused of anti-Semitism.
But any movement such as North Korea is doing is good news, because now, Israel must be led by the international community to follow the same world policies, the IAEA inspections and regulations and human rights and international law.
Also the Dimona is ancient and last week, the Israeli Ambassador visited the office of IAEA, Mohamed Elbaraede and the news reports that he complained about Iran. So, maybe now, Israel will also report in secret to the IAEA, about the future of Dimona?
Also Isreal wants to build or have Reactors for energy so they must accept and adhere to the NPT and all IAEA authorization and inspections.
The world is waiting for Israel to move as Korea is and South Africa did.
If Israel claims they don’t have nuclear weapons, then they must open up the Dimona or destroy it.
Israel’s atomic weapons cause every state in the M E to want them and the only way out is for Israel to sign the NPT or close down the Dimona.-vmjc
Previously Vanunu told me, “The Dimona is 46 years old; reactors last 25 to 30 years. The Dimona has never been inspected and Israel has never signed the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty but all the Arab states have…Twenty years ago when I worked there they only produced when the air was blowing towards Jordan ten miles away. No one knows what is happening now.
“The Israelis have 200 atomic weapons and they accuse the Palestinians and Muslims of terrorism. The world needs to wake up and see the real terrorism is the occupation and the Palestinians have lived under that terror regime for 40 years.
“Israel propaganda portrays all Palestinians as Muslim extremists and Hamas terrorists and neglect that Palestinian Christians are following the true message of Jesus Christ with nonviolent resistance. We need all Christians to come and see the truth for themselves.
“I really had no clue what I was doing by getting baptized a Christian; I just felt like I had to do it. It was my way to become a new being. It wasn’t until after my trial that I started to read the New Testament. While I was in prison, I would read aloud for a half hour, twice a day. I would read the entire New Testament and begin it again when I finished the Book of Revelation. I did this for myself, as well as for my captors–not so much the prison guards, but the ones who watched me on camera twenty-four hours a day. Once I covered up the camera that spied on me and was punished with one month in solitary, without any books or radio; no contact with anyone anywhere was allowed. It was just them, the Shen Beet, you know, like the FBI and the Mossad, like your CIA— they were watching me.
“They tortured me by keeping a light on in my cell constantly for two years. They told me it was because they were afraid I would commit suicide, and the oppressive camera was for my safety. They recruited the guards and other prisoners to irritate me. They would deprive me of sleep by making loud noises near my cell all night long.
“I chose to read them 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8, instead:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with THE TRUTH! It always protects, it always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.
“For the first five years, twice a day I would loudly pray by reading Bible verses. I would also read the Anglican service from the Book of Common Prayer. I did it twice a day, everyday, for five years. I began to see I had become like a machine. I knew if I continued I would lose my mind. So after that, I only prayed in silence. Although I knew I was driving them nuts with my loud praying, it was driving me nuts, too. I changed my routine. I was allowed outside every day for two hours; I had been jogging around in circles for the two hours, but now I changed my routine. I began to alter that and all my routines so I would not be like a machine. I refused to eat when they brought my food in. I would decide everyday what time I would eat and what I would eat. I chose a different time everyday to do anything. The camera was there to learn my behavior so they could manipulate me. I knew I had to constantly change my routine. I began reading more books about health, nutrition, history, philosophy, and literature, and kept my prayer life quiet.” [IBID]
From a June 2008 email:
E: On April 19, 1995, you wrote:
“The real reason for this solitary is to make me into a fundamentalist religious man…Peres and Rabin want to silence me by engaging me with religious prayers…They portray them [Arabs] as religious fundamentalists, while the truth is that the Jews here in Israel are the real religious fundamentalists. They still believe that they are a superior race here in Israel, and that the Arabs are second class. The Arabs don’t have equal rights. This is the reason why. Israel doesn’t want a real peace, because they don’t want to give equal rights to the Arab peoples. That is the reason for Israel wanting to keep its racial superiority by force over all the Arabs. And to justify it they need Islamic fundamentalism.”[3]
Can you comment on why people choose fundamentalism other than a lack of hope and cultural influences?
V: When people lose all hope to be free and liberated, but are under occupation, they have no power to change the situation. Israel keeps putting them under increasing pressures, so many cling to a connection with God. It is like a conspiracy; a conspiracy of hopelessness and poverty that conspire to attract people to fundamentalism.
E: Do you see connections between fundamental Jews and Muslims and the judgmental and escapist theology promoted in Christian Zionism?
V: Without fundamentalist religion in the government, the Jews could live in real peace. Christian Zionist are being used to fight Islam and the Muslim are holding onto God as their last hope while fundamentalist Jews, cling to Zionism.
E: You wrote in 1995 that you “stopped being interested in religion and stopped reading religious books” but you continued to identify with Jesus. How do you relate to Jesus in 2008?
V: Since my release from jail in 2004, my religion has also become my political statement. I am living among Palestinian Christians; they are real Christians living under military occupation, just like Jesus did. Church is a place for social meetings and for sharing political experiences.
E: Do you think 21st century man understands JC any better than in the first century?
V: If they have adopted his ideas to support the poor and not make wars, and understand there is no super race, no people who are more chosen than any other.
E: What do you think about the fact that JC was never a Christian, but that he was born, lived and died a Palestinian Jew under military occupation, and do you identify with him that way?
V: Yes, it is same today here in Jerusalem but with a different army.
I once wrote an Op-ed and called Vanunu a prophet. When he read the piece, he emailed me and in bold letters wrote: “DON’T CALL ME THAT!”
I won’t to his face, but in the spirit of freedom of speech, I cannot help myself. Prophets do NOT predict the future-as much as they point out impending doom. Vanunu pointed the way to the weapons of mass destruction program underground in the Negev desert, and yet, not one IAEA inspection has been allowed, nor demanded by the USA.
The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah also spent much of his life under house arrest in Jerusalem, for being a truth teller. We know more about the personal life and struggles of Jeremiah than any other Hebrew prophet. Jeremiah, which translates as “The Lord throws”-as in hurling, had few friends and is considered primarily a prophet of doom.
Jeremiah was intensely introspective, self-critical, timid by nature but honest and open about his feelings. Jeremiah never married and began prophesying in Judah from 604-586, a time of storm and stress when the doom of entire nations-including Judah itself-was being sealed. Jeremiah had been the king’s friend and confident, but the prophet soon entered a dreary round of persecution and imprisonment, alternating with only brief periods of freedom, and lived under virtual house arrest.
Jeremiah was also labeled a traitor by many for speaking the brutal truth, “I cannot keep silent…Disaster follows disaster; the land lies in ruins…My people are fools; they do not know me.”-Jeremiah 4:19.
1. Memoirs of a Nice Irish-American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory, Chapter 7: Brother V, Eileen Fleming
2. IBID
3. Letters From Prison to Father Dave, available in PDF by email from Fr. Dave @
dave@fatherdave.org
Eileen Fleming, Reporter and Editor WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author “Keep Hope Alive” and “Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory”
Producer “30 Minutes With Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu”
Sarkozy Set For a Constitutional Showdown
Hardly the sexiest headline by any stretch of the imagination. But there again when it comes to institutional reform and changes to the constitution, the subject matter is hardly guaranteed to instill much enthusiasm.
The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy is fighting constitutional reform on two fronts. There is of course the debate over how to deal with the Irish “no” vote in June to the Lisbon treaty. He’ll be tackling further that issue on July 21 when he pitches up in Dublin in his role as the EU big cheese while France holds the 27-nation bloc’s six-month rotating presidency.
And this week will see his attempts to update the French constitution receive either final parliamentary approval or a political slap in the face.
The vote is too close to call with some likely splits in the governing Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) party and the opposition Socialist party promising to reject the changes.
The reforms themselves have already been passed separately by both chambers of parliament, the National Assembly and the Senate. But for constitutional changes to be made, both have to meet jointly and vote together at a special session opening in Versailles on Monday. A three-fifths majority of votes cast will be needed for the reforms to be endorsed.
At stake basically is one of Sarkozy’s electoral promises to change the way politics works here in France.
Among the proposals are moves to make the president more accountable to parliament, allowing him (or her) to appear directly before both chambers. Another clause would require the government to seek parliamentary approval for a military operation (abroad) longer than six months. The number of terms a president could serve would also be limited to two (periods of five years) and the process of allowing national votes or referenda on issues would also be possible if the requisite number of signatures were collected and had political backing.
So in a very real sense the changes could be interpreted as at the very least boosting the powers of parliament.
So what exactly are the fears of the opposition to a reform which on the whole has also received fairly widespread popular support in France – if the most recent opinion polls are to be believed?
Basically the main opposition party, the Socialists, fear that allowing the president to address parliament directly will blur the boundaries between the executive and legislative arms of government.
The separation of powers has been an essential of French politics in all its republics since 1873 and the president has been banned from appearing in person before the National Assembly or the Senate.
In trying to reach a compromise, Sarkozy has suggested an annual state address to parliament along the lines of the US president’s state of the nation speech. But even that has met with only lukewarm enthusiasm.
In the past couple of weeks Sarkozy has also made more concessions – proposing for example that opposition parties have equal (television) airtime to address issues raised by the president whenever he appears on the small screen over the course of a year.
But the Socialist party in particular has held firm in maintaining that it will present a united front in Versailles and vote “no”.
While it might be hard to figure out exactly why the Socialist party isn’t supporting the reform – apart perhaps from refusing to accept a centre-right inspired proposal – it must appear even more difficult to understand why some members of the governing UMP party might break ranks.
There again as the reforms have passed through parliament to the final vote, a number of compromises have been struck which leaves the reform package, as far as some of them are concerned, almost a shadow of what was first put forward.
To get the majority needed, the government is counting on – and indeed will need – some defections from the Left, and one such vote could come in the shape of a high profile former Socialist minister, Jack Lang, who has apparently still not made up his mind how he will vote.
Lang calls the changes modest and far from the wide-ranging proposals envisaged by a parliamentary committee of which he is a member, to look at the overall reform of France’s institutions.
Even though the Socialists are calling for a united front in voting “no” in Versailles, which would certainly stop the changes to the constitution being made, there are also some waverers, and they could just tip the balance.
Critics of the Socialist party’s stance have claimed that their opposition to the reforms is based more on principle than conviction and a simple look at the latest opinion polls would tell them that a healthy majority of French voters are in favour of the reforms.
In a weekend survey, almost 70 per cent of those asked said they supported the changes.
Johnny Summerton is a Paris-based broadcaster, writer and journalist specialising in politics, sport and travel. For more on what’s making the headlines here in France, log on to his site at http://www.persiflagefrance.com
Practical Guide to Christian Financial Freedom
Discover Practical Biblical Secrets to Becoming Free From Debt…Achieving True Financial Freedom…And Walking In Gods Blessings From This Day Forward!
Practical Guide to Christian Financial Freedom
Church Attacker Pleads Guilty
Church Attacker Pleads Guilty
ANNA — Relief comes for two Union County families, as the man accused in a brutal beating pleads guilty. The attack took place on September 28, 2009, at the Anna First Baptist Church. Two church workers were seriously injured and are still recovering.
Read more on WSIL 3 Southern Illinois
Latest Income Tax Vs Freedom Auctions
Hey, check out these auctions:
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Cool, arent they?
Enough of this Freedom of Religion Crap
Alan Shore (James Spader) of Boston Legal argues to cut down on freedom of religion.
Obama to hold national security sitdown on Iraq
Obama to hold national security sitdown on Iraq
President Barack Obama sits down Wednesday with his national security team to talk about Iraq.
Read more on AP via Yahoo! News
