Isn't there ever going to be any GOOD news for us?

[LiberalEsto]

I'm afraid to look at the front page of the Washington Post, or turn on and watch the other corporate media. I go straight to the Post's comics -- it's the only part of the paper worth reading.

If it isn't the nightmare of senseless bloodshed in Iraq, it's the nightmare of senseless bloodshed in Lebanon and Israel, or the senseless bloodshed elsewhere, or the mass starvation, disease, and ravages of climate change.

Every day brings new, frightening news about global warming. Melting glaciers, shrinking Great Lakes, vanishing species, killer storms, deadly heat waves -- the list never ends.

The Bushistas and the Repugs in Congress continue to do all the rotten things they possibly can, from propping up vicious regimes, to ignoring starvation and poverty. They take away funds for environmental protection and education, and use them to pay Halliburton insane amounts of money on no-bid contracts to feed garbage to our own troops. They fail to properly equip our military, and they treat our returning veterans and injured like dirt. Who the hell is rotten enough to charge an amputee soldier hundreds of dollars for losing their weapon during combat?

They wipe our consumer protections that took decades to create, and allow big corporations to graze on our money with impunity. They allow companies to wipe out pension plans and replace American workers with cheap labor from India and Mexico and elsewhere.

AND NOBODY CAN STOP THEM!!!

They cheat in elections by manipulating electronic voting machines, disenfranchising people of color, reducing the number of voting machines in Democratic districts, and pulling dirty tricks like jamming Democrats' phone lines so people can't call for election day rides to the polls.

They make a mockery of our precious Constitution by spying on us and taking away our freedoms of press, assembly, speech, voting rights, and more. And they stack the Supreme Court and federal judgeships to make sure they can get away with it all.

AND NOBODY STOPS THEM!

Lackeys like Joe Lieberman and Mary Landrieu keep enabling them, and even those brave Democrats who do challenge and object get ignored by the corporate media.

"Religious" zealots move to control women's bodies, school textbooks, school curricula and so much more, with the aid of the Bushistas. And now they're giddy with glee, hoping this Middle East war is the prelude to Armageddon. They hope their version of God will swoop them up to some kind of heaven, while we get left behind to live in an earthly hell.

Frankly, all these nasties are what's been making life on earth hellish, and the sooner they go, the better.

But there are other people, like myself, who believe something entirely different than their "rapture" theory.

I would like to pray to, and believe in a Goddess or God of Justice, who will swoop down and remove these depraved monsters from the face of the earth they are trying so hard to destroy.

I don't believe in Hell, but it would be nice to think there is a cosmic re-education camp where they might be taught some genuine Christian principles, such as "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you," "Turn the other cheek," and "It is easier for a camel to get through a needle's eye than it is for a rich man to enter heaven."

And maybe some nice Pagan respect for all living things on Mother Earth, instead of worshiping fetuses and seeking to destroy every other living plant and creature and being.

[Deja Q]

1. Well, if I get to go steady with anybody, no doubt it'll make the

international headlines. :rofl:

[kimmerspixelated]

2. You've read my mind!

Good Post!

[mdmc]

3. Boondocks season one is out on DVD

:shrug:

[sweetheart]

4. somebody will stop them

The snipers of the world don't talk on message boards in advance.
The american elites will be looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives.

Death will stop them, from god's sniper rifle, and then we can get back to war and killing
and murder and distractions to avoid the empty rattling in our own enslaved existance.

[LiberalEsto]

6. That's not a solution I would choose

I'd rather see the processes of the Constitution, the law, and the World Court handle this.

Or a heavenly zap of enlightenment from the Goddess.

But you're right, they will have to worry about violent retribution all their lives. Violence begets violence, alas.

[DELUSIONAL]

5. Add the death of the Amazon Forest to your list of worries

IF the Amazon Forest doesn't get any rain the forest will die -- and the area could become a desert.

All of the carbon locked in the trees of the Amazon could be release when most of the trees die in the third year of the current drought.

A major drought and massive fires could royally screw up the whole enviornment -- and what is happening now in the Middle East could be just one of many die offs of the human species.

So which tragety is worse -- which piece of news is worse? I am beginning to believe that the news of the ongoing drought in the Amazon Forest may be the worst news among all the bad news we are reading.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1582355,00.html


Amazon dries out as worst ever drought hits rainforest

· Drop in water level affects towns dependent on river
· Crisis blamed on Gulf coast hurricanes

Alex Bellos in Manaus
Saturday October 1, 2005
The Guardian

Large parts of the Amazon rainforest are at their driest in living memory, a direct consequence, scientists say, of the severe hurricane season off the US Gulf coast.

Rainfall has been significantly below average this year along the Rio Solimoes and the Rio Madeira, two of the major Brazilian tributaries that flow into the Amazon, causing water levels to drop to record lows. Rivers and lakes are drying up, revealing huge sandbanks and making navigation difficult for boats. Since many towns are only accessible by river, medicine, food and fuel are running out in some communities.

Article continues
"There is no rain here because the air is descending, which prevents the formation of clouds," said Ricardo Dellarosa, of the Amazon Protection Organisation (Sipam) in Manaus. "The air is descending here because the air is rising very intensely in the north Atlantic, creating storms and hurricanes. What goes up must come down."

Gilvan Sampaio of the National Institute of Space Research said the north Atlantic was slightly warmer than usual, which had shifted the tropical weather system further north. A secondary factor, he added, was that cold fronts that usually came from the south of Brazil at this time of year had not been arriving. "These cold fronts have been heading straight into the ocean, instead of heading north towards the Amazon."

Even though the river levels in the south-western Brazilian Amazon are always low at this time of year, the scale is much worse than usual and has hit areas never previously affected.

"It's the worst it's been in 60 years," said Elpidio Gomes da Silva Filho, head of the Administration of West Amazon Waterways. "The journey along the Madeira should take six days. Now it is taking 15 because only small boats can pass."

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/extreme-drought-in-the-amazon

Manaquiri, Brazil — The devastating drought currently affecting the Amazon rainforest is part of a vicious cycle created by the combined affects of global warming and deforestation and could cause the collapse of the rainforest, according to scientists (1) from the Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia and Greenpeace.

"Brazil is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate changes in the world because of its invaluable biodiversity. If the Amazon loses more than 40% of its forest cover, we will reach a turning point from where we cannot reverse the savannization process of the world's largest forest," said Carlos Nobre, from the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and President of the International Geosphere Biosphere Program (IGBP) (2).

Seventeen per cent of the Amazon has been completely wiped out over the past 30 years, according to INPE, and even more has been damaged by destructive and illegal logging and other human activities. Life on Earth depends on ancient forests for its survival. They are the richest most diverse habitats, and help stabilize climate and regulate the weather.

[LiberalEsto]

8. How on earth do these monsters think they can escape?

They're not just crapping up the planet for us, they're doing it to themselves and their own progeny. They can hide in nice air-conditioned gated enclaves, but what are they going to do when there's no water or electricity at any price? Or clean air? Or food? Or medicine?

Ultimately, these bastards who are ruining the Earth are ruining it for themselves too. Do they have an unconscious death wish? Is that why they loudly shout that they are pro-life, when in fact they are anti every form of life except fetuses? Is that why they eagerly anticipate Armageddon?

One can't help but wonder if these people are the anti-Christ and Satan's emissaries sent here to create Hell on Earth. I don't believe in such things, but sometimes I wonder..

[DELUSIONAL]

10. Some parasites kill the host -- and then die

humans are like a parasite upon the earth -- will humans kill earth?

I don't know -- but Global warming is really a far bigger issue than the religious wars going on in the Middle east.

These wars may divert our attention -- meanwhile the oceans are still getting warmer and spawning more killer hurricanes.

Will we know when we've reached a point of no return -- or will we know only when the point has been reached and there is no going back.

No matter how much money etc etc the filthy rich have stored up -- they have doomed their children and grand children to certain death -- could be a quick death in one of the many wars over water -- or it could be a slow lingering death.

Those who survive to become future generations -- are going to hate us.

How do we tell them that the vast majority of people had no choice? Our choices were all stolen by the filthy rich bastards.

[MoseyWalker]

7. No. n/t

[geniph]

9. You reminded me of an old joke

Every day, getting on the train to work, Bob saw the same old fellow get on at the stop after his with a newspaper. Every day, the old fellow opened the newspaper, looked at the front page, and threw the paper down with a disgusted expletive.

After many months, Bob finally got up the courage to ask the old fellow why he always looked at the headlines on the front page and then threw down the paper in disgust.

"I'm looking for an obituary," the old fellow said.

"Obituaries aren't on the front page," Bob said.

"The son-of-a-bitch I'm looking for will be!" said the old fellow.

on edit: My husband told me that joke, and tells me his father told it to him - apparently that joke dates all the way back to Hoover, or even further. ;-)