ATHEISM,

FOR BILL MAHER. THERE ARE NO ATHEISTS IN PRISON. FORGET FOXHOLES. THE STATISTICS ARE THAT THERRE ARE NO ATHEISTS IN PRISON.

THE ONLY SIDE THEY HAVE, THE RELIGILOUS IS THAT RELIGION IS BETTER FOR SOCIETY THAN ATHEISM. AND IT IS. BUT, IT'S WRONG. WE HAVE QA PARADOX. IF WE KNOW SOMETHING IS A LIE, BUT IT'S GOOD FOR SOCIETY, WHAT DO WE DO.

\WE DON'T PREACH AGAINST IT. DAWSON, HITCHENS, MAHER, TAKE NOTE. SHUT UP. RELIGIONB IN MODERN TIMES.

1. CHRISTIAN RELIGION DOES MORE GOOD THAN HARM.

2, AND IS BASED ON A LIE.

IF 1. IS TRUE, WHAT THE FUDCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO ABOUT IT.

AND ONLY A LONELY NERD WOULD GIVE A FLYING RAT'S ASS. WHO CARES.



We found the highest percentage of belief among NAS mathematicians (14.3% in God, 15.0% in immortality). Biological scientists had the lowest rate of belief (5.5% in God, 7.1% in immortality), with physicists and astronomers slightly higher (7.5% in God, 7.5% in immortality).

Overall comparison figures for the 1914, 1933 and 1998 surveys appear in Table 1.When scientists don't know something — like why the universe came into being or how the first self-replicating molecules formed — they admit it.

Pretending to know things one doesn't know is a profound liability in science. And yet it is the life-blood of faith-based religion. One of the monumental ironies of religious discourse can be found in the frequency with which people of faith praise themselves for their humility, while claiming to know facts about cosmology, chemistry and biology that no scientist knows. When considering questions about the nature of the cosmos and our place within it, atheists tend to draw their opinions from science. This isn't arrogance; it is intellectual honesty

.Although it is possible to be a scientist and still believe in God — as some scientists seem to manage it — there is no question that an engagement with scientific thinking tends to erode, rather than support, religious faith.

Taking the U.S. population as an example: Most polls show that about 90% of the general public believes in a personal God; yet 93% of the members of the National Acad

president of the Harvard Law Review as a student

since regular full-time faculty are expected to produce scholarship. Notwithstanding an apparent eleven-year teaching career in constitutional law at a top-flight law school, not one single article, published talk, book review, or comment of any kind, appears anywhere in the professional legal literature, under Barack Obama's name "I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued by George Bush and overturn those laws or executive decisions that I feel violate the constitution," said Obama"


One should not have to remind the former President of the Harvard Law review that a President of the United States cannot overturn a law. Only the Supreme Court can overturn a law; Congress can change laws. A President -- even one consumed by his own grandiosity -- cannot "overturn" a law. That is Constitutional Law 101His criteria for selecting justices (and remember a President appoints all federal judges and US Attorneys):

"We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges."


How about legal acumen? A sterling record of scholarship? Are those just optional?

These are lifetime appointments
Although he was president of the Harvard Law Review as a student, in which capacity he no doubt wrote some unsigned notes, a search of the HeinOnline database of law journals turns up exactly nothing credited to Obama in any law review anywhere at any time. This is yet more indication that his status as "lecturer" at Chicago was not a regular faculty appointment, since regular full-time faculty are expected to produce scholarship. Notwithstanding an apparent eleven-year teaching career in constitutional law at a top-flight law school, not one single article, published talk, book review, or comment of any kind, appears anywhere in the professional legal literature, under Barack Obama's name
Legal scholar

Indeed, he has left little in the way of a record for Americans to judge his legal abilities. No written records, no signed legal papers, no research papers authored or co-authored by him. Nothing.

not inclined to support any real, workable programs

See, now this strikes a personal chord.

As a former homeless person for almost 6 years from my late teens to my early 20's, let me tell you this: the kind of 'help' the religious organizations give to homeless people is actually worse then useless.

Say you need food, okay. Food aid they do... well, it's never stored properly and is often rotten, but it's better then dying.

Now allow me to explain to you the church "shelter" programs. 5 or 6 churches get together, and they set up first come first serve days where the homeless can sleep overnight. Sounds like a good idea, right? It's not. It's a horrible idea. You have to be up and out at 7 AM, and then, if you want to sleep inside, you need to get to the next church by 5 PM, because that's when they start reserving the beds. Except if you actually WANT a bed, you start lining up pretty much at 10 in the morning. I won;t get into the hours of praying you're required to do, because hey.. free bed.

Do you see any time in there to, you know, get a job? If a church REALLY wants to help, then they need to offer the beds every night, and they need to be assigned to one person until they don't show up before say.. 8 PM. But nobody wants to do this, because homeless people, many mentally ill, make a bigass mess and it's hard to clean up the church in time for the normals to attend.

Upshot? It amkes the churchies feel like they're doing something. Downside? They aren;t helping at all. There's no way out of homelessness this way, and worse; BECAUSE your average idiot churchgoer thinks it's actually helping the homeless, they're not inclined to support any real, workable programs with their tax dollars. "Go to the church for help!" Bullshit. But to the average jackhole, they think it's enough and the homeless are being lazy.

Then we have category 2, the religious semi permanent shelter. Wow. Great, idea, NEVER done correctly. 6 month waiting list, minimum, all of them. What are the requirements for getting inside? You can't have used drugs or alcohol in the last 6 months. THEY HAIR FIBER TEST. Yes, the cost of a HAIR FIBER TEST is wasted on this strange rule. Not using while in, yes. Haven't used for 6 month. What? Have these people ever BEEN homeless? I hate drugs with a passion, but shit even I sparked up a doobie now and again to alleviate the bleakness of the situation. It's either that or kill yourself.


I just got off the phone with a friend of 20 years who was homeless for a year and a half - until a couple weeks ago. Drugs took him down....again. My wife and I have always let him know we love him and respect him for being a kind hearted person, so he's always felt comfortable staying in touch.

We met Anthony at a shelter where we were helping out (and still do). A couple of times he got it together pretty well. Had a good job, car, place to live. But, the drugs always end up getting him in the end. This is a guy who graduated from U Tenn and had the world by the tail. He just got out of detox. Hope it works out this time. Funny thing is, this time he didn't use until the last couple of weeks sleeping under the same overpass (on cardboard the last year and a half). It was really good to hear from him.

Homelessness is caused by many things. But for the Grace of God go I. I never talked to a homeless person where I didn't walk away a better person for the experience. Somehow, talking to them with respect is more important than the money I might give them to make it through another night fed or comforted by their flavor of booze. They never fail to say, "God Bless You". I always answer, "He just did".


They're all someone's brother, sister, uncle, aunt, mother or father, child. This Christmas I'm doing the usual and buying prepaid postcards and pens to hand out so they can let their loved ones know they're alive. Many of them are just ashamed of their lives and reluctant to reconnect. But, I've witnessed a lot of tearful reunions when family members come to pick them up after getting that phone call they've been waiting for for so long. Answered prayers.

We had a reunion her last year that was amazing. A young lady who'd been an executive for a major corporation was having some issues with depression. She was changing planes here several years ago on her way home for Christmas and help. Facing a couple hour layover, she wandered out of the airport terminal, and ended up homeless for several years. She was on her way to Houston to meet with her family and get some help. It was really something when they reconnected.

God Bless them all. None of them ever planned for their lives to turn out this way.

Cartel-related violence has moved beyond American border towns

The Enemy Within

Cartel-related violence has moved well beyond American border towns.

NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Mar 23, 2009

As Manuel exited the Radio Shack in Phoenix with his family one afternoon last month, a group of Hispanic men standing in the parking lot watched him closely. "Do it now, do it now," one said to another in Spanish, according to a witness. One of the men approached Manuel, pointed a revolver at his head and tried to force him into a Ford Expedition parked close by. "Please, I'll get into the car, just don't touch me," Manuel pleaded as he entered the vehicle, his wife told police. Nearby, she said, another man in a Chrysler sedan aimed a rifle or shotgun out the driver's side window. At some point, shots were fired, said witnesses, although apparently no one was hit. Then the vehicles tore off with a screech of tires.

Later that evening, the phone rang. When Manuel's wife picked up, a male voice said in Spanish, "Don't call the police," and then played a recording of Manuel saying, "Tell the kids I'm OK." The man said he'd call again, then hung up. Despite the warning, Manuel's wife contacted the cops. In subsequent calls, the kidnappers told her Manuel owed money for drugs, and they demanded $1 million and his Cadillac Escalade as ransom.

When two men later retrieved the Escalade and drove off, the cops chased them and forced them off the road. Both men, illegal immigrants from Mexico, said they'd been paid by a man (who authorities believe has high-level drug connections) to drive the vehicle to Tucson. So far, police say, Manuel hasn't reappeared, and his family has been reluctant to cooperate further with law enforcement. "He's a drug dealer, and he lost a load," says Lt. Lauri Burgett of the Phoenix Police Department's recently created kidnapping squad. "He was probably brought to Mexico to answer for that."

Surprising as it may seem, Phoenix has become America's kidnapping capital. Last year 368 abductions were reported, compared with 117 in 2000. Police say the real number is likely much higher, since many go unreported. Though in the past most of the nabbings stemmed from domestic-violence incidents, now the majority are linked to drug-trafficking and human-smuggling operations that pervade the Arizona corridor. It's still unclear to what extent the snatchings are being directly ordered by Mexican cartels, but authorities say they're undoubtedly a byproduct of the drug-fueled mayhem south of the border. "The tactics are moving north," says assistant police chief Andy Anderson. "We don't have the violence they have in Mexico yet—the killing of police officers and the beheadings—but in terms of kidnappings and home invasions, it has come."

That raises an unnerving prospect: that the turmoil in Mexico—where drug violence claimed more than 6,000 lives last year—is finally seeping across the border. According to a December report by the Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center, Mexican drug-trafficking organizations have established a presence in 230 U.S. cities, including such remote places as Anchorage, Alaska, and Sheboygan, Wis. The issue is preoccupying American officials. "This is getting the highest level of attention," including the president's, says Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. She tells NEWSWEEK that the administration is dispatching additional Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel to the border, and it's reviewing requests from the governors of Arizona and Texas for help from National Guard troops. Earlier this month, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Mexico to discuss assistance and to share potentially relevant lessons that the United States has learned in Iraq and Afghanistan, says a senior Pentagon official familiar with details of the trip who wasn't authorized to speak on the record.

All the attention has stoked public debate on a particularly fraught question—whether Mexico is a failing state. A U.S. Joint Forces Command study released last November floated that scenario, grouping the country with Pakistan as a potential candidate for "sudden and rapid collapse." Such a comparison is excessive, says Eric Olson of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute in Washington, D.C., though the Mexican government confronts "real problems of sovereignty in certain areas" of the country. Administration officials are striving to tone down the rhetoric and focus on ways to help. Among the priorities, says Olson: to cut American demand for drugs, to provide additional training and equipment to law-enforcement and military personnel in Mexico, and to clamp down on drug cash—an estimated $23 billion per year—and assault weapons flowing into the country from the United States.

As the violence continues to spiral in Mexico, reports of cartel-related activity are on the rise in American cities far removed from the border. Last August the bodies of five Mexican men were discovered bound, gagged and electrocuted in Birmingham, Ala., in what was believed to be a hit ordered by Mexican narcotraffickers. A few months later, 33 people with cartel ties were indicted in Greeneville, Tenn., for distributing 24,000 pounds of marijuana. In neighboring North Carolina, "there are cartel cells … that are a direct extension from Mexico," says John Emerson, the Drug Enforcement Administration's special agent in charge in the state.

Law enforcement in Atlanta, where a maze of interstates provides distribution routes throughout the Southeast, has dubbed the city "the new Southwest border." "All those trends are coming here," says Fred Stephens of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations. "We are seeing alarming patterns, the same violence." He ticks off a spate of cartel-linked crimes in the state—assaults, abductions, executions. Last May authorities in Gwinnett County found a kidnap victim, along with 11 kilos of cocaine and $7.65 million in shrink-wrapped bundles, in a house rented by an alleged Gulf cartel cell leader. A few months later, a suspected drug dealer in Lawrenceville was abducted by six men, dressed commando-style in black, and held for a $2 million ransom (he escaped).

Nothing rivals the rash of kidnappings in Phoenix, however. As border enforcement has tightened the screws on the California and Texas crossings, Arizona has become a prime gateway for illicit trafficking—in both directions. "The drugs and people come north, the guns go south," says Elizabeth Kempshall, the DEA's special agent in charge of the Phoenix division. Arizona is mostly dominated by the Sinaloa cartel, which authorities say is trying to assert greater control over the U.S. drug trade. Yet analysts believe the organization has fractured—most notably last summer, when the Beltrán Leyva brothers reportedly split from leader Joaquín (El Chapo) Guzmán.

That internecine conflict, along with cartel encroachment north of the border, has created something of a free-for-all in Phoenix's criminal underworld. Among the groups that have stepped into the breach: roving Mexican gangsters called bajadores, or "takedown" crews, who are responsible for many of the city's kidnappings. Often operating in packs of five, they typically cross the border to commit crimes, then retreat south, say police. Some work as enforcers for the cartels, collecting payment from dealers who have stiffed the capos or lost their loads. Others function as freelancers, stealing shipments of drugs or illegal immigrants from traffickers. "We've seen an uptick in the bajadores since last summer," says Al Richard, a Phoenix police detective. "We are seeing a lot more professionals coming up here now."

Bajadores are renowned for their ruthlessness. Kidnap victims have been found bound and gagged, their fingers smashed and their foreheads spattered with blood from pistol-whippings. When the crews abduct illegal immigrants—hoping to extort more money from relatives—"they will sometimes kill someone off immediately to scare the others," says Richard. "There was a case last year where they duct-taped the mouth and nose of one individual and had the others watch while he asphyxiated and defecated on himself." Some bajadores have branched out to home invasions. In one incident last June, a gang broke into a home, outfitted in Phoenix police gear and Kevlar vests—a hallmark of criminal enterprises across the border.

To combat the problem, police in Phoenix created the kidnapping squad—known officially as Home Invasion Kidnapping Enforcement—last September. Led by Lieutenant Burgett, the team of 10 lead investigators has already busted 31 crime cells and made more than 220 arrests. But "it never stops," she says. "It's like a Texas ant hill." One of the squad's main objectives: to keep the abductions confined to the criminal world. "Most of the time, our victims are as bad as our suspects," says Sgt. Phil Roberts. "We give them five to 10 minutes to hug their wife, and then they are off to jail themselves." If average citizens begin to get ensnared, the result could be widespread panic. "We don't want what happens in Mexico to happen here, where they are kidnapping bank presidents," he says. "We don't want the president of Wells Fargo to need a bodyguard."

Last Tuesday afternoon, the squad was working a case involving a suspected marijuana middleman. As police later learned, a few days earlier, he'd allegedly brokered a deal between a group of sellers and two buyers for 150 pounds of pot. But when the parties gathered at a suburban house, the two buyers held up the others and made off with $40,000 worth of dope and cash. The man tried to escape, but a woman at the house pulled a gun on him. "You're not leaving," she said, according to the middleman's subsequent account to police. "You set up this deal." The stolen goods were now his debt. Eventually released, he scrambled to cobble together $40,000 worth of possessions—three vehicles, 10 pounds of pot, some cash—while a man who called himself "Chuco" rang him every hour. But it wasn't enough. On Tuesday morning, Chuco arrived at the man's house. "I've got to go," the man told his girlfriend, according to her statements to police. "If I don't pay, they're going to hurt me." His abductors, he said, worked for El Chapo (an unconfirmed allegation).

Later that day, the man's girlfriend arrived at the police station. Sleepless and frantic, she fielded repeated calls from her boyfriend, who pleaded for her to raise additional cash. The cops urged her to remain calm. "I know you are stressed, but you need to keep talking," said one of the detectives. "You are the only one who can do the negotiating." She had already called some family members and asked them to draw money from an equity line. But it wasn't arriving quickly enough. "I don't have it yet, baby," she told her boyfriend on a subsequent call, as he grew more distressed. "I'm doing everything I can."

Unbeknownst to the woman, the kidnapping squad had received information on her boyfriend's possible location. As cops approached the suspected house a little after midnight, an SUV suddenly sped away. Police pursued it and pulled it over. "Tell us where he is!" a detective told the passengers. Just then, a Chevy Impala took off from the house. Another chase ensued, and eventually the driver was forced to stop. Inside were four passengers, with the middleman in the rear, flanked by two men armed with weapons. Back at the station, detectives questioned the parties; as of late last week, charges were likely against four abductors, but not the victim, due to a lack of evidence in the suspected marijuana deal. But now he's on the cops' radar, says Burgett. "We do proactive follow-up on victims as well."

Though much of Phoenix's kidnapping epidemic stems from alleged drug deals gone awry, plenty are linked to the human-smuggling trade. That work used to be dominated by small "mom and pop" outfits, but in time, the cartels have muscled in on it. Any group that wants to use their trafficking routes has to pay up—about $2,000 per week for Mexicans and $10,000 per week for "exotics," like Chinese and Middle Easterners, says Richard, the Phoenix detective. That added business cost has encouraged some smugglers to try to extort more money from their human loads—known as pollos, or "chickens"—once they've crossed the border. More and more, pollos may change hands several times among dueños, or "owners"—a new, more violent breed of smugglers. The drop houses used to stash immigrants are also becoming more barbaric.

One recent night, the Human Smuggling Unit of the Maricopa County sheriff's office received a tip on a drop house in a middle-class neighborhood in Phoenix. Relatives of an immigrant being held there had received an extortion call demanding $3,500. Joined by a SWAT team, the unit made its move, breaching windows and doors, which were boarded up (a typical precaution taken by smugglers). A half dozen men tried to escape but were grabbed, says Lt. Joe Sousa, the unit commander. Inside were several dozen illegal immigrants, all shoeless and famished. Authorities confiscated two pistols, a sawed-off shotgun and a Taser-like device—"used against people when they're put on the phone, begging their relatives for cash," says Sousa. It was a good bust, he says, but "within a week or two, that same organization will be back up and running." Sousa moved to Phoenix because he thought it was a nice place to raise a family. But the violence is out of control, he says. "Soon as I retire, I'm out of here."

Many area residents who have had encounters with the smuggling world share the sentiment. At a takedown of a suspected drop house a few days earlier in nearby Avondale, a neighbor became inconsolable describing the terror he experienced living next door to what locals fear is a home to ruthless criminals. "It's been hell," said the man, who refused to be named because he was scared. "I have five kids. I've been sleeping with two machine guns under my bed for two years." He's planning to foreclose on his property and flee with his family as soon as possible. Despite the bust, the smugglers "will be back," he said. "Right now, they are headed to the border, they'll chill out for a month, and they'll be back." As overwrought as he may have been, he was probably right.


Amid a surge of American kidnappings at the U.S.-Mexico border, a survivor's story.
Jamie Reno
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Feb 25, 2008 | Updated: 5:25 p.m. ET Feb 25, 2008

Roberto, a San Diego machinist in his mid-30s, used to visit his family across the border in Tijuana every few weeks. But in the summer of 2005, while he was relaxing at a family home there, a group of approximately 20 masked men burst in suddenly. Claiming to be Mexican police, the armed men grabbed Roberto as well as another family member and a close friend. They then blindfolded all three, tied their hands behind their backs, threw them into a car and sped away. The men also took Roberto's new truck, which was parked at the house and may have tipped off the kidnappers that he or his family had enough money to pay their ransom.

Later that day the kidnappers called his oldest daughter to demand payment using a number they had retrieved from Roberto's cell phone. For the following two weeks Roberto, who declined to use his real name because he is still frightened by the ordeal, was hogtied, left on a concrete floor and victimized by "constant" beatings, he says. His captors fed him three tortillas the entire time, and gave him very little water. They separated him from his fellow abductees; he wasn't sure where they were being held. "[The kidnappers] kept telling me they were sharpening their knives and were going to kill me. I didn't know why this was happening to me," Roberto, speaking Spanish through an interpreter, told NEWSWEEK in an exclusive telephone interview. "They broke three of my ribs on the right side and sliced off the tip of my tongue."

Captors let Roberto go after his family paid an undisclosed ransom, says FBI spokesman Darrell Foxworth. But Roberto's relative is still missing and presumed dead; his friend, who was also released, remains severely traumatized. Says Roberto, "If I even moved, they'd hit me. I didn't sleep the first week. I constantly thought I was going to die."

Kidnappings of American residents in the Tijuana area south of San Diego have accelerated dramatically since Roberto's 2005 abduction. There were 11 such incidents in 2006 and 26 in 2007. Over the last few months they've spiked to an unprecedented high—and grown ever more violent. Since Thanksgiving at least 18 U.S. residents have been kidnapped and held for ransom in and around Tijuana, according to Keith Slotter, the special agent in charge of the FBI's San Diego office. That averages out to about six per month. Late last month Mexican authorities rescued two female real estate agents—one a U.S. resident—who had been kidnapped on Jan. 19 and arrested three kidnappers, according to the FBI. The bureau would not talk specifically about the case or comment on whether the three men were suspects in any of the other abductions.

The kidnappings are just one symptom of a wave of violent crime that has washed over the border region and caused American tourism in Tijuana to drop by more than 50 percent in the last year, according to Jack Doron, president of the Tijuana Merchants Association. Drug gangs have killed more than 50 people in Tijuana already this year, according to the Los Angeles Times, and the city has been the scene of several shootouts and police assassinations in recent months. Two weeks ago residents found six bodies on the streets with signs attached to the corpses that warned against participating in a new Mexican Army program to encourage citizens to inform on drug traffickers. While the FBI's Slotter says the kidnappings and drug violence don't appear to be directly linked, he notes that they are part of the same general trend of growing lawlessness in Baja.

Some of the 18 recent kidnapping victims have been killed, while others have survived but suffered serious injuries, Slotter says. Kidnappers raped some of the female victims. The violence associated with the abductions "goes way beyond anything we've seen, in terms of brutality," he says. "We don't really know why."

And in a startling twist, kidnappers have begun to seize their victims inside the U.S. and take them to Mexico. "Any kidnapping anywhere is one too many," suggests Slotter, "but when American residents are kidnapped inside our own country and taken to another country to be tortured and even killed, that is totally unacceptable." [Mexican authorities have sent troops into the streets in the midst of a major crackdown on gang violence and are also cooperating with U.S. law enforcement in trying to solve the kidnapping cases.] The FBI works cross-border kidnappings in coordination with the Baja California Anti-Kidnaping Group. Because the victims are often held in Mexico, all operational aspects of the investigation are coordinated and conducted through the Baja California Anti-Kidnaping Group. "This coordination has contributed to the successful resolution of a number kidnaping cases," says FBI spokesman Darrell Foxworth tells NEWSWEEK.

As a result of the increase in violent crime, American officials are urging caution. Two weeks ago, the U.S. consulate in Tijuana issued a travel advisory warning tourists to be "extra careful" because of the recent increase in violence. And last week authorities at San Diego State University, the largest college in the area, cautioned students to "consider the recent violence" before traveling south for spring break.

The kidnappers apparently select victims who have money or have families with enough money to pay hefty ransoms. Most have business or family ties to Mexico. "They are not picked randomly," says Slotter ominously. They are preselected." Slotter isn't sure how sophisticated the kidnappers' surveillance methods are or if they are actually getting their hands on financial records of their would-be captives. Roberto says he drove a new truck with California plates across the border to a "not so well off" part of Tijuana to visit family members. That may have been all the information kidnappers needed.

Kidnappings in Mexico have historically been fallout of drug trafficking or payback for something that went bad. But Slotter says that's changing. "The crime cells in Tijuana have realized kidnapping is profitable," says Slotter. "We believe it's just a couple of groups perpetrating these crimes."

The cross-border communication between kidnappers and the victims' families gives the FBI its jurisdiction. But the bureau still needs authorization from Mexican authorities before carrying out an operation across the border, and he says law enforcement from both sides of the border is cooperating. "The two full-time border liaisons in our office are working very closely with Mexican authorities to apprehend and prosecute these people," says Slotter, who admits that prosecution is difficult. The bureau has worked U.S. kidnappings throughout its history, he notes, and there is typically a high degree of confidence that the victim(s) will be returned safely and the kidnapper(s) will be apprehended. But when it happens across the border, the cases become much more challenging.

"Our primary goal in these cases is to work with families to return the victims safely from Mexico, to get the ransom paid and work on negotiations," says Slotter, who remains hopeful that law enforcement can catch the kidnappers. "I'm optimistic that we can find them. It may take more time than a typical kidnapping case, but I have faith that we are going to be successful."

As for Roberto, he says he has no plans to cross the border again. Ten years before he was abducted, he says he consulted a tarot card reader in downtown Tijuana who actually said that one day he would be kidnapped. "I just laughed. I dismissed it at the time," he says. "But it's not funny anymore. It makes me sad what has happened there. It's my home country, but … I want other people to know how dangerous it has become. I will never return to Mexico."

HOT AIR.

And we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. HOT AIR.

a sound body of law,"

The solution is not just to start paring back all the law -- that would take 10 lifetimes, like trying to prune the jungle. We need to abandon the idea that freedom is a legal maze, where each daily choice is like picking the right answer on a multiple-choice test. We need to set a new goal for law -- to define an open area of free choice. This requires judges and legislatures to affirmatively assert social norms of what's reasonable and what's not. "The first requirement of a sound body of law," Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote, "is that it should correspond with the actual feelings and demands of the community.

engagement with scientific thinking tends to erode, rather than support, religious faith.

FOR BILL MAHER. THERE ARE NO ATHEISTS IN PRISON. FORGET FOXHOLES. THE STATISTICS ARE THAT THERRE ARE NO ATHEISTS IN PRISON.

THE ONLY SIDE THEY HAVE, THE RELIGILOUS IS THAT RELIGION IS BETTER FOR SOCIETY THAN ATHEISM. AND IT IS. BUT, IT'S WRONG. WE HAVE QA PARADOX. IF WE KNOW SOMETHING IS A LIE, BUT IT'S GOOD FOR SOCIETY, WHAT DO WE DO.

\WE DON'T PREACH AGAINST IT. DAWSON, HITCHENS, MAHER, TAKE NOTE. SHUT UP. RELIGIONB IN MODERN TIMES.

1. CHRISTIAN RELIGION DOES MORE GOOD THAN HARM.

2, AND IS BASED ON A LIE.

IF 1. IS TRUE, WHAT THE FUDCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO ABOUT IT.

AND ONLY A LONELY NERD WOULD GIVE A FLYING RAT'S ASS. WHO CARES.



We found the highest percentage of belief among NAS mathematicians (14.3% in God, 15.0% in immortality). Biological scientists had the lowest rate of belief (5.5% in God, 7.1% in immortality), with physicists and astronomers slightly higher (7.5% in God, 7.5% in immortality).

Overall comparison figures for the 1914, 1933 and 1998 surveys appear in Table 1.When scientists don't know something — like why the universe came into being or how the first self-replicating molecules formed — they admit it.

Pretending to know things one doesn't know is a profound liability in science. And yet it is the life-blood of faith-based religion. One of the monumental ironies of religious discourse can be found in the frequency with which people of faith praise themselves for their humility, while claiming to know facts about cosmology, chemistry and biology that no scientist knows. When considering questions about the nature of the cosmos and our place within it, atheists tend to draw their opinions from science. This isn't arrogance; it is intellectual honesty

.Although it is possible to be a scientist and still believe in God — as some scientists seem to manage it — there is no question that an engagement with scientific thinking tends to erode, rather than support, religious faith.

Taking the U.S. population as an example: Most polls show that about 90% of the general public believes in a personal God; yet 93% of the members of the National Academy of Sciences do not. This suggests that there are few modes of thinking less congenial to religious faith than science

LIGHTHOUSES ARE MORE USEFUL THAN CHURCHES

LIGHTHOUSES ARE MORE USEFUL THAN CHURCHES --- BEN FRANKLYN

STUPID 2004 OBAMA SPEECH

TIME TO LIE. GET THIS ONE. WORSE THAN ANYTHING IN HIS INAUGURATION TEAR JERKER.

in no other country on earth, is my story even possible.

AND, EVEN WORSE. I AM MY BROTHER'S KEEPER.


John Kerry believes in America. And he knows that it’s not enough for just some of us to prosper -- for alongside our famous individualism, there’s another ingredient in the American saga, a belief that we’re all connected as one people. If there is a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there is a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for their prescription drugs, and having to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandparent. If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties.

It is that fundamental belief -- It is that fundamental belief: I am my brother’s keeper. I am my sister’s keeper that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family.


WELL, BOY HOWDY, THAT IS A CROCK OF STEAMING SHIT. HOW IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE RHETORICAL. SOARING. ITS RUBBISH. ALONGSIDE OUR FAMOUS INDIVIDUALISM IS THE BELIEF THAT WE ARE OUR BROTHERS' KEEPER?? THAT IS A LIE. A PERVERSION OF TRUTH. A STUPID HIGH SOUNDING TURD OF SPEECH. FUCK THAT SHIT.

Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place, America, that shone as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before..WORKED HARDER THAN ANYONE ELSE. NOT PARTICULARLY BRIGHT, JUST, PERSEVERANT AND HARD WORKING. BUCKLED DOWN MORE THAN ANY BODY ELSE IN HIS LITTLE VILLAGE. FLEW A PIG TO WORK EVERY DAY. FUCK THIS GODDAMNED SHIT.

People don’t expect -- People don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all.


What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -
- a recognition, on the part of every American,

YOU IRRESPONSIBLE AMERICANS

honesty and hard work, courage and fair play,
tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism
YOU NEED TO RETURN TO THESE VALUES

That is the true genius of America, a faith -- a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles; that we can tuck in our children at night and know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm; that we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door; that we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe; that we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution.


I’m not talking about blind optimism here -- the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don’t think about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about something more substantial. It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; WHO MARRIED A BILLIONAIRE, the hope of a millworker’s son who dares to defy the odds; WHAT ODDS. VOTED MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED? the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name AND A 150 IQ who believes that America has a place for him, too.




THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT.

Hope -- Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!

I believe that we have a righteous wind at our backs and that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us.



America! Tonight, if you feel the same energy that I do, if you feel the same urgency that I do, if you feel the same passion that I do, if you feel the same hopefulness that I do -- if we do what we must do, then I have no doubt that all across the country, from Florida to Oregon, from Washington to Maine, the people will rise up in November..

rise up YES WE CAN. CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN. I AM MY BROTHER'S KEEPER, EXCEPT MY ACTUAL OWN BROTHER, WHO I WOULDN'T LEND A HELPING HAND TO.




People don’t expect -- People don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all.

REALLY. IS THAT WHAT MAKES A DEMOCRAT? IS THAT WHAT WE THINK??



I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper.


That is the true genius of America, a faith -- a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles; that we can tuck in our children at night and know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm; that we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door; that we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe; that we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution.

SUDDEN KNOCK ON THE DOOR?? WHERE IS THAT? ONLY IN AMERICA ARE WE SAFE FROM A SUDDEN KNOCK ON THE DOOR??? IS HE OUT OF HIS MIND?!!

in a tolerant America

in a generous America

I’m not talking about blind optimism here -- the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don’t think about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about something more substantial. It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker’s son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. COURSE IT HELPS IF HE HAS A 170 IQ. OR, LIKE JOHN EDWARDS, WAS THE CUTEST BOY IN HIS GRADUATING CLASS. HOPE. FOR THE SHMOES, THE LESSER SHMOES WHO DON'T HAVE A CHANCE. BUT THEY CAN HOAPE AND THEY BELIECVE. AND THEY CAN VOTE, WITH AUACIOUS, SUPID HOPOE, DRIVING THEM ONWAY ONWARD AND UPWARD. RUN IT UP THE FLAG.... RUNI IT UP THE FLAG AND SEE WHO SALUTES IT!





In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead.

I believe that we can give our middle class relief and provide working families with a road to opportunity.

I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across America from violence and despair.

I believe that we have a righteous wind at our backs and that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us.

America! Tonight, if you feel the same energy that I do, if you feel the same urgency that I do, if you feel the same passion that I do, if you feel the same hopefulness that I do -- if we do what we must do, then I have no doubt that all across the country, from Florida to Oregon, from Washington to Maine, the people will rise up in November, and John Kerry will be sworn in as President, and John Edwards will be sworn in as Vice President, and this country will reclaim its promise, and out of this long political darkness a brighter day will come.

THIS SPEECH STINKS. ITS GOT NOTHING IN IT BUT PLATITUDES.


In the end -- In the end -- In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope? DON'T VOTE FOR BUSH. HE IS CYNICAL. HE WANTS YOU TO SLEEP ON THE FLOOR. TUCK YOU CHILDREN INTO A DUMPSTER.




fundamental belief -- It is that fundamental belief: I am my brother’s keeper. I am my sister’s keeper that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family.

E pluribus unum: "Out of many, one

OH, NOT MY BROTHER GEORGE THOUGH. FUCK HIM. HE'S JUST A HALF SIB ANYWAY.

I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper.
I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper.
I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper.
I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper.
I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper.
I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper.
I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper.
I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my brother’s keeper.


we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe;

NO SIR, ONLY IN AMERICA CAN WE START A BUSINESS WITHOUT PAYING A BRIBE, UNLESS YOU LIVE IN NEW JERSEY.. BUT IN SWEDEN? GOD, ITS LIKE IMPOSSIBLE TO THRIVE THERE BECASUE OF CRIME AND PAYOFFS AND EVERYTHING.

AMERICA IS JUST A ZILLION TIMES BETTER THAN ANY OTHER PLACE ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH. A GAZILLION TIMES BETTER. THE BESTEST.

an insistence on small miracles; that we can tuck in our children at night and know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm;NOT LIKE FINLAND. OR ENGLAND, WHERE EVERYONE SLEEPS IN FEAR, ON THE FLOOR, OUTDOORS, BECAUSE THEY LACK AN INSISTENCE ON SMALL MIRACLES.

THAT IS THE FUCKING STUPIDEST THING I EVER HEARD IN MY LIFE..\
\
we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door;
FINLAND, ENALAND, ITALY, THEY HAVE NO SUCH DREAMS. NO SUCJH SMALL MIRACLES. THEY , WHY STALIN IS EVEYWHERE BUT HERE,K AND WHY, BECAUSE WE DARE TO DREAM THE IMPSSIBLE, CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN, PICK OURSELVES AND DUST OURSELVES OFF AND START ALL OVER AGAIN THEY. WHY IF THEY DID THAT IN FINLAND, AND ALL THOSE OTHER IDEAL-LESS NATIONS, WHY IT WOULD BE , LIKE THROWING FOOD ON THEIR FAMILIES. THEN THE QUESTION IS OUR CHILDREN LEARNING WOULD NEVER HAVE TO BE AXED.

HERE'S SOME RHETORIC; We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.


MY INTOLERANCE FOR ALL OTHER NATIONS IS PROFOUD THAT I SAY HERE, STUPIDIST THING YOU COULD IMAGINE. HERE IT IS FOLKS. DON'T HATE FOR IT. THEY MADE ME SAY THIS.
in no other country on earth, is my story even possible.
in no other country on earth, is my story even possible
in no other country on earth, is my story even possible

(CHOIR OF ANGELS)
STUPID FUCK.

WITH HEY NONY NONY NONY LA LA LA LA

AND YET, THERE IS MORE PLAIN DUMB BULLSHIT. LOOK AT THIS.


That is the true genius of America, a faith -- a faith in simple dreams,
Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our Nation -- not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness


WHAT OTHER NATION BELIEVES THAT!?? DOES CANADA BELIEVE PEOPLE SHOULD BE HAPPY?
(CROWD CHANTING. NO! NO! NO!)

WHAT OTHER NATION HAS EVER HAD SUCH STERLING EXCEPTIONAL IDEALS? FRANCE

(NO, OBAMA, NO)

ENLAND?? SPAIN? PERU? ITALY? FINLAND???!

(NO. NONE OF THEM ARE EVEN HUMAN. WE HATE THEM. THEY ARE NATIONS OF FUCK HOLES,

And yet, I know that on this night they look down on me with great pride.. I BELIEVE. (ECHO EFFECT)

an improbable love
They imagined -- They imagined me going to the best schools in the land,
They would give me an African name, Barack, or ”blessed,”
WE SHALL HARNESS THE WINDS. the best schools in the land,
the best schools in the land,
I AM AMERICA AND SO CAN YOU., (THANK YOU THANK YOU, PLEASE, )
BORN IN A TOWN ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD!!!!

in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.
in a generous America you don’t have to be rich to achieve your potential.
OR IN SPAIN EITHER FOR THAT MATTER. FUCK HOLE.


in no other country on earth, is my story even possible.


=-=--0=-=0=-0=-0=-0=0=-0 =-0=-0=-0=0= =-0=-0=0=-0=-0=-0= -0=-0= -0=-0





Barack Obama

2004 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address



Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place, America, that shone as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before. HIS 150 IQ HAD NOTHING TO WITH TO DO WITH IT. HARRK AND PERSERVEERANCE, AND A NEGRO CAN BE WHATEVER THE FUCK.

WITH HEY NONY NONY NONY LA LA LA LA

While studying here, my father met my mother. She was born in a town on the other side of the world, in Kansas.

WHAT SOARING RHETORICE3. I CAN SEE THEIR PEE PEES. SHE WAS BORN INT A TOWN ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD!!!!




Her father worked on oil rigs and farms through most of the Depression. WHAT A TERRIBLE THING. SUCH WOIK. THANKS GOD I NEVER HAD TO LOWER MY NEGRO SELF TO SUCH PERIL AND DESBASEMENT.
(THAT'S THE PART OF THE BUILDING UNDER YOUR HOUSE, DEBASEMENT)


The day after Pearl Harbor my grandfather signed up for duty; joined Patton’s army, marched across Europe. HE MARCH AND HE MARCHED AAND HED MARCHED. LUCKY I DIDN'T HAVE TO BE DRAFTED.


Back home, my grandmother raised a baby


(TO THE TUNE OF I'M IN A LEAGUE OF MY OWN WHEN IT COMES TO MAKING SPEECHES)


Back home, my grandmother raised a
and went to work on a bomber assembly line



After the war, they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through F.H.A., and later moved west all the way to Hawaii in search of opportunity.

And they, too, had big dreams for their daughter. A common dream, born of two continents.

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation.


AND , IN THEMSELVES??? IN THEIR TALENT?? WHAT COLOR WERE THEY. NEGRO COLORED?? FUCK THIS SHIT.



They would give me an African name, Barack, or ”blessed,”



believing FOLISHLY that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success. STUDIES SHOW THAT LASHANDA'S DO WORSE THAN LAURA"S. ITS THE TRUTH. WHY DOES THIS GUY VEER FROM THE TRUTH.

They imagined -- They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren’t rich, because in a generous America you don’t have to be rich to achieve your potential.

They're both passed away now. And yet, I know that on this night they look down on me with great pride.

They stand here -- And I stand here today, grateful for the diversity of my heritage, aware that my parents’ dreams live on in my two precious daughters. I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible.

Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our Nation -- not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That is the true genius of America, a faith -- a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles; that we can tuck in our children at night and know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm; that we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door; that we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe; that we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will be counted -- at least most of the time.

This year, in this election we are called to reaffirm our values and our commitments, to hold them against a hard reality and see how we're measuring up to the legacy of our forbearers and the promise of future generations.

And fellow Americans, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, I say to you tonight: We have more work to do -- more work to do for the workers I met in Galesburg, Illinois, who are losing their union jobs at the Maytag plant that’s moving to Mexico, and now are having to compete with their own children for jobs that pay seven bucks an hour; more to do for the father that I met who was losing his job and choking back the tears, wondering how he would pay 4500 dollars a month for the drugs his son needs without the health benefits that he counted on; more to do for the young woman in East St. Louis, and thousands more like her, who has the grades, has the drive, has the will, but doesn’t have the money to go to college.

Now, don’t get me wrong. The people I meet -- in small towns and big cities, in diners and office parks -- they don’t expect government to solve all their problems. They know they have to work hard to get ahead, and they want to. Go into the collar counties around Chicago, and people will tell you they don’t want their tax money wasted, by a welfare agency or by the Pentagon. Go in -- Go into any inner city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone can’t teach our kids to learn; they know that parents have to teach, that children can’t achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white. They know those things.

People don’t expect -- People don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all.

They know we can do better. And they want that choice.

In this election, we offer that choice. Our Party has chosen a man to lead us who embodies the best this country has to offer. And that man is John Kerry.

John Kerry understands the ideals of community, faith, and service because they’ve defined his life. From his heroic service to Vietnam, to his years as a prosecutor and lieutenant governor, through two decades in the United States Senate, he's devoted himself to this country. Again and again, we’ve seen him make tough choices when easier ones were available.

His values and his record affirm what is best in us. John Kerry believes in an America where hard work is rewarded; so instead of offering tax breaks to companies shipping jobs overseas, he offers them to companies creating jobs here at home.

John Kerry believes in an America where all Americans can afford the same health coverage our politicians in Washington have for themselves.

John Kerry believes in energy independence, so we aren’t held hostage to the profits of oil companies, or the sabotage of foreign oil fields.

John Kerry believes in the Constitutional freedoms that have made our country the envy of the world, and he will never sacrifice our basic liberties, nor use faith as a wedge to divide us.

And John Kerry believes that in a dangerous world war must be an option sometimes, but it should never be the first option.

You know, a while back -- awhile back I met a young man named Shamus in a V.F.W. Hall in East Moline, Illinois. He was a good-looking kid -- six two, six three, clear eyed, with an easy smile. He told me he’d joined the Marines and was heading to Iraq the following week. And as I listened to him explain why he’d enlisted, the absolute faith he had in our country and its leaders, his devotion to duty and service, I thought this young man was all that any of us might ever hope for in a child.

But then I asked myself, "Are we serving Shamus as well as he is serving us?"

I thought of the 900 men and women -- sons and daughters, husbands and wives, friends and neighbors, who won’t be returning to their own hometowns. I thought of the families I’ve met who were struggling to get by without a loved one’s full income, or whose loved ones had returned with a limb missing or nerves shattered, but still lacked long-term health benefits because they were Reservists.

When we send our young men and women into harm’s way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they’re going, to care for their families while they’re gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world.

Now -- Now let me be clear. Let me be clear. We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued. And they must be defeated. John Kerry knows this. And just as Lieutenant Kerry did not hesitate to risk his life to protect the men who served with him in Vietnam, President Kerry will not hesitate one moment to use our military might to keep America safe and secure.

John Kerry believes in America. And he knows that it’s not enough for just some of us to prosper -- for alongside our famous individualism, there’s another ingredient in the American saga, a belief that we’re all connected as one people. If there is a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there is a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for their prescription drugs, and having to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandparent. If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties.

It is that fundamental belief -- It is that fundamental belief: I am my brother’s keeper. I am my sister’s keeper that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family.

E pluribus unum: "Out of many, one."

Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us -- the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of "anything goes." Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there’s the United States of America.

The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an "awesome God" in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

In the end -- In the end -- In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope? DON'T VOTE FOR BUSH. HE IS CYNICAL. HE WANTS YOU TO SLEEP ON THE FLOOR. TUCK YOU CHILDREN INTO A DUMPSTER.

John Kerry calls on us to hope. John Edwards calls on us to hope.

I’m not talking about blind optimism here -- the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don’t think about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about something more substantial. It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker’s son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.

Hope -- Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!

In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead.

I believe that we can give our middle class relief and provide working families with a road to opportunity.

I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across America from violence and despair.

I believe that we have a righteous wind at our backs and that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us.

America! Tonight, if you feel the same energy that I do, if you feel the same urgency that I do, if you feel the same passion that I do, if you feel the same hopefulness that I do -- if we do what we must do, then I have no doubt that all across the country, from Florida to Oregon, from Washington to Maine, the people will rise up in November, and John Kerry will be sworn in as President, and John Edwards will be sworn in as Vice President, and this country will reclaim its promise, and out of this long political darkness a brighter day will come.

Thank you very much everybody. God bless you. Thank you.

Book/CDs by Michael E. Eidenmuller, Published by McGraw-Hill (2008)

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dick Durbin. You make us all proud.

On behalf of the great state of Illinois, crossroads of a nation, Land of Lincoln, let me express my deepest gratitude for the privilege of addressing this convention.

Tonight is a particular honor for me because, let’s face it, my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father -- my grandfather -- was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.

But my grandfather had larger dreams for his son. Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place, America, that shone as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before.

While studying here, my father met my mother. She was born in a town on the other side of the world, in Kansas. Her father worked on oil rigs and farms through most of the Depression. The day after Pearl Harbor my grandfather signed up for duty; joined Patton’s army, marched across Europe. Back home, my grandmother raised a baby and went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through F.H.A., and later moved west all the way to Hawaii in search of opportunity.

And they, too, had big dreams for their daughter. A common dream, born of two continents.

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or ”blessed,” believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success. They imagined -- They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren’t rich, because in a generous America you don’t have to be rich to achieve your potential.

They're both passed away now. And yet, I know that on this night they look down on me with great pride.

They stand here -- And I stand here today, grateful for the diversity of my heritage, aware that my parents’ dreams live on in my two precious daughters. I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible.

Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our Nation -- not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That is the true genius of America, a faith -- a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles; that we can tuck in our children at night and know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm; that we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door; that we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe; that we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will be counted -- at least most of the time.

This year, in this election we are called to reaffirm our values and our commitments, to hold them against a hard reality and see how we're measuring up to the legacy of our forbearers and the promise of future generations.

And fellow Americans, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, I say to you tonight: We have more work to do -- more work to do for the workers I met in Galesburg, Illinois, who are losing their union jobs at the Maytag plant that’s moving to Mexico, and now are having to compete with their own children for jobs that pay seven bucks an hour; more to do for the father that I met who was losing his job and choking back the tears, wondering how he would pay 4500 dollars a month for the drugs his son needs without the health benefits that he counted on; more to do for the young woman in East St. Louis, and thousands more like her, who has the grades, has the drive, has the will, but doesn’t have the money to go to college.

Now, don’t get me wrong. The people I meet -- in small towns and big cities, in diners and office parks -- they don’t expect government to solve all their problems. They know they have to work hard to get ahead, and they want to. Go into the collar counties around Chicago, and people will tell you they don’t want their tax money wasted, by a welfare agency or by the Pentagon. Go in -- Go into any inner city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone can’t teach our kids to learn; they know that parents have to teach, that children can’t achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white. They know those things.

People don’t expect -- People don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all.

They know we can do better. And they want that choice.

In this election, we offer that choice. Our Party has chosen a man to lead us who embodies the best this country has to offer. And that man is John Kerry.

John Kerry understands the ideals of community, faith, and service because they’ve defined his life. From his heroic service to Vietnam, to his years as a prosecutor and lieutenant governor, through two decades in the United States Senate, he's devoted himself to this country. Again and again, we’ve seen him make tough choices when easier ones were available.

His values and his record affirm what is best in us. John Kerry believes in an America where hard work is rewarded; so instead of offering tax breaks to companies shipping jobs overseas, he offers them to companies creating jobs here at home.

John Kerry believes in an America where all Americans can afford the same health coverage our politicians in Washington have for themselves.

John Kerry believes in energy independence, so we aren’t held hostage to the profits of oil companies, or the sabotage of foreign oil fields.

John Kerry believes in the Constitutional freedoms that have made our country the envy of the world, and he will never sacrifice our basic liberties, nor use faith as a wedge to divide us.

And John Kerry believes that in a dangerous world war must be an option sometimes, but it should never be the first option.

You know, a while back -- awhile back I met a young man named Shamus in a V.F.W. Hall in East Moline, Illinois. He was a good-looking kid -- six two, six three, clear eyed, with an easy smile. He told me he’d joined the Marines and was heading to Iraq the following week. And as I listened to him explain why he’d enlisted, the absolute faith he had in our country and its leaders, his devotion to duty and service, I thought this young man was all that any of us might ever hope for in a child.

But then I asked myself, "Are we serving Shamus as well as he is serving us?"

I thought of the 900 men and women -- sons and daughters, husbands and wives, friends and neighbors, who won’t be returning to their own hometowns. I thought of the families I’ve met who were struggling to get by without a loved one’s full income, or whose loved ones had returned with a limb missing or nerves shattered, but still lacked long-term health benefits because they were Reservists.

When we send our young men and women into harm’s way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they’re going, to care for their families while they’re gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world.

Now -- Now let me be clear. Let me be clear. We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued. And they must be defeated. John Kerry knows this. And just as Lieutenant Kerry did not hesitate to risk his life to protect the men who served with him in Vietnam, President Kerry will not hesitate one moment to use our military might to keep America safe and secure.

John Kerry believes in America. And he knows that it’s not enough for just some of us to prosper -- for alongside our famous individualism, there’s another ingredient in the American saga, a belief that we’re all connected as one people. If there is a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there is a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for their prescription drugs, and having to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandparent. If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties.

It is that fundamental belief -- It is that fundamental belief: I am my brother’s keeper. I am my sister’s keeper that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family.

E pluribus unum: "Out of many, one."

Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us -- the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of "anything goes." Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there’s the United States of America.

The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an "awesome God" in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

In the end -- In the end -- In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope?

John Kerry calls on us to hope. John Edwards calls on us to hope.

I’m not talking about blind optimism here -- the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don’t think about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about something more substantial. It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker’s son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.

Hope -- Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!

In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead.

I believe that we can give our middle class relief and provide working families with a road to opportunity.

I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across America from violence and despair.

I believe that we have a righteous wind at our backs and that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us.

America! Tonight, if you feel the same energy that I do, if you feel the same urgency that I do, if you feel the same passion that I do, if you feel the same hopefulness that I do -- if we do what we must do, then I have no doubt that all across the country, from Florida to Oregon, from Washington to Maine, the people will rise up in November, and John Kerry will be sworn in as President, and John Edwards will be sworn in as Vice President, and this country will reclaim its promise, and out of this long political darkness a brighter day will come.

Thank you very much everybody. God bless you. Thank you.

SHAKESPEARE ON ENVY AND DEPRESSION

Every moment think steadily as a man to do what you have in hand with simple dignity, and feeling of affection, if possible.

laying aside all carelessness and passionate aversion from the commands of reason, and all hypocrisy, and self-love, and discontent with the portion which has been given to you. Laying aside all self-love. That's stupid.

Though your soul reverences not itself but places thy felicity in the souls of others. Well, it will do that, but there is little or no hope for change. More like no hope.

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, I all alone bemoan my outcast state.

YOU GOT THAT RIGHT. THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT YOU WOULD EXPECT FROM A FUCKED UP SITUATION.


And look upon myself, and curse my fate,

AND CURSE MY SHITTY FUCKED UP FATE. RIGHT. EXACTLY.

AND HERE IS THE SHAKESPEARIAN ENVY PART. RICH IN HOPE, MORE FRIENDS, HAVING SOME ART OR SKILL, OR SCOPE. WHAT ELSE IS NEW. JUST DON'T MENTION IT AGAIN.

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,

AND A LICK OR TWO ABOUT DEPRESSION. YOU KNOW, NOTHING IS MUCH FUN ANYMORE. AND THERE ISN'T ANYTHING MUCH TO DO ANYWAY. THAT'S NOT DEPRESSION. IT'S NOT SOMETHING TO PUT SUCH A LABEL TO. THAT IS A HIDEOUS LABEL FOR A NORMAL STATE OF THINGS.



With what I most enjoy contented least...THAT'S SAD. NOT NECESSARILY DEPRESSION. JUST HOW THINGS ARE. OR SHOULD I JUST FUCK MYSELF.

The Nine Billion Names of God

The Nine Billion Names of God


By Arthur Clarke

"This is a slightly unusual request," said Dr. Wagner, with what he hoped was commendable restraint. "As far as I know, it’s the first time anyone’s been asked to supply a Tibetan monastery with an automatic sequence computer. I don’t wish to be inquisitive, but I should hardly thought that your --ah-- establishment had much use for such a machine. Could you explain just what you intend to do with it?"

"Gladly," replied the lama, readjusting his silk robe and carefully putting away the slide rule he had been using for currency conversions. "Your Mark V computer can carry out any routine mathematical operation involving up to ten digits. However, for our work we are interested in letters, not numbers. As we wish you to modify the output circuits, the machine will be printing words, not columns of figures."

"I don’t understand . . ."

"This is a project on which we have been working for the last three centuries -- since the lamasery was founded, in fact. It is somewhat alien to your way of thought, so I hope you will listen with an open mind while I explain it."

"Naturally."

"It is really quite simple. We have been compiling a list which shall contain all the possible names of God."

"I beg your pardon?"

"We have reason to believe," continued the lama imperturbably, "that all such names can be written with not more than nine letters in an alphabet we have devised."

"And you have been doing this for three centuries?"

"Yes. We expected it would take us about fifteen thousand years to complete the task."

"Oh." Dr. Wagner looked a little dazed. "Now I see why you wanted to hire one of our machines. But exactly what is the purpose of this project?"

The lama hesitated for a fraction of a second, and Wagner wondered if he had offended him. If so, there was no trace of annoyance in the reply.

"Call it ritual, if you like, but it’s a fundamental part of our belief. All the many names of the Supreme Being -- God, Jehovah, Allah, and so on -- they are only man-made labels. There is a philosophical problem of some difficulty here, which I do not propose to discuss, but somewhere among all the possible combinations of letters, which can occur, are what one may call the real names of God. By systematic permutation of letters, we have been trying to list them all."

"I see. You’ve been starting at AAAAAAAAA . . . and working up to ZZZZZZZZZ . . ."

"Exactly -- though we use a special alphabet of our own. Modifying the electromatic typewriters to deal with this is, of course, trivial. A rather more interesting problem is that of devising suitable circuits to eliminate ridiculous combinations. For example, no letter must occur more than three times in succession."

"Three? Surely you mean two."

"Three is correct. I am afraid it would take too long to explain why, even if you understood our language."

"I’m sure it would," said Wagner hastily. "Go on."

"Luckily it will be a simple matter to adapt your automatic sequence computer for this work, since once it has been programmed properly it will permute each letter in turn and print the result. What would have taken us fifteen thousand years it will be able to do in a thousand days."

Dr. Wagner was scarcely conscious of the faint sounds from the Manhattan streets far below. He was in a different world, a world of natural, not man-made, mountains. High up in their remote aeries these monks had been patiently at work, generation after generation, compiling their lists of meaningless words. Was there any limit to the follies of mankind? Still, he must give no hint of his inner thoughts. The customer was always right . . .

"There’s no doubt," replied the doctor, "that we can modify the Mark V to print lists of this nature. I’m much more worried about the problem of installation and maintenance. Getting out to Tibet, in these days, is not going to be easy."

"We can arrange that. The components are small enough to travel by air -- that is one reason why we chose your machine. If you can get them to India, we will provide transport from there."

"And you want to hire two of our engineers?"

"Yes, for the three months which the project should occupy."

"I’ve no doubt that Personnel can manage that." Dr. Wagner scribbled a note on his desk pad. "There are just two other points--"

Before he could finish the sentence, the lama had produced a small slip of paper.

"This is my certified credit balance at the Asiatic Bank."

"Thank you. It appears to be--ah--adequate. The second matter is so trivial that I hesitate to mention it -- but it’s surprising how often the obvious gets overlooked. What source of electrical energy have you?"

"A diesel generator providing 50 kilowatts at 110 volts. It was installed about five years ago and is quite reliable. It’s made life at the lamasery much more comfortable, but of course it was really installed to provide power for the motors driving the prayer wheels."

"Of course," echoed Dr. Wagner. "I should have thought of that."

The view from the parapet was vertiginous, but in time one gets used to anything. After three months George Hanley was not impressed by the two-thousand-foot swoop into the abyss or the remote checkerboard of fields in the valley below. He was leaning against the wind-smoothed stones and staring morosely at the distant mountains whose names he had never bothered to discover.

This, thought George, was the craziest thing that had ever happened to him. "Project Shangri-La," some wit at the labs had christened it. For weeks now, Mark V had been churning out acres of sheets covered with gibberish. Patiently, inexorably, the computer had been rearranging letters in all their possible combinations, exhausting each class before going on to the next. As the sheets had emerged from the electromatic typewriters, the monks had carefully cut them up and pasted them into enormous books. In another week, heaven be praised, they would have finished. Just what obscure calculations had convinced the monks that they needn’t bother to go on to words of ten, twenty, or a hundred letters, George didn’t know. One of his recurring nightmares was that there would be some change of plan and that the High Lama (whom they’d naturally called Sam Jaffe, though he didn’t look a bit like him) would suddenly announce that the project would be extended to approximately 2060 A.D. They were quite capable of it.

George heard the heavy wooden door slam in the wind as Chuck came out onto the parapet beside him. As usual, Chuck was smoking one of the cigars that made him so popular with the monks -- who, it seemed, were quite willing to embrace all the minor and most of the major pleasures of life. That was one thing in their favor: they might be crazy, but they weren’t bluenoses. Those frequent trips they took down to the village, for instance . . ." "Listen, George," said Chuck urgently. "I’ve learned something that means trouble."

"What’s wrong? Isn’t the machine behaving?" That was the worst contingency George could imagine. It might delay his return, than which nothing could be more horrible. The way he felt now, even the sight of a TV commercial would seem like manna from heaven. At least it would be some link from home.

"No -- it’s nothing like that." Chuck settled himself on the parapet, which was unusual, because normally he was scared of the drop.

"I’ve just found out what all this is about."

"What d’ya mean -- I thought we knew."

"Sure -- we know what the monks are trying to do. But we didn’t know why. It’s the craziest thing --"

"Tell me something new," growled George.

" . . . but old Sam’s just come clean with me. You know the way he drops in every afternoon to watch the sheets roll out. Well, this time he seemed rather excited, or at least as near as he’ll ever get to it. When I told him we were on the last cycle he asked me, in that cute English accent of his, if I’d ever wondered what they were trying to do. I said, ‘Sure’ -- and he told me."

"Go on, I’ll buy it."

"Well, they believe that when they have listed all His names -- and they reckon that there are about nine billion of them -- God’s purpose will have been achieved. The human race will have finished what it was created to do, and there won’t be any point in carrying on. Indeed, the very idea is something like blasphemy."

"Then what do they expect us to do? Commit suicide?"

"There’s no need for that. When the list’s completed, God steps in and simply winds things up . . . bingo!"

"Oh, I get it. When we finish our job, it will be the end of the world."

Chuck gave a nervous little laugh.

"That’s just what I said to Sam. And do you know what happened? He looked at me in a very queer way, like I’d been stupid in class, and said, ‘It’s nothing as trivial as that’."

George thought this over for a moment.

"That’s what I call taking the Wide View," he said presently.

"But what d’ya suppose we should do about it? I don’t see that it makes the slightest difference to us. After all, we already knew that they were crazy."

"Yes -- but don’t you see what may happen? When the list’s complete and the Last Trump doesn’t blow -- or whatever it is that they expect -- we may get the blame. It’s our machine they’ve been using. I don’t like the situation one little bit."

"I see," said George slowly. "You’ve got a point there. But this sort of thing’s happened here before, you know. When I was a kid down in Louisiana we had a crackpot preacher who said the world was going to end next Sunday. Hundreds of people believed him-- even sold their homes. Yet nothing happened; they didn’t turn nasty, as you’d expect. They just decided that he’d made a mistake in his calculations and went right on believing. I guess some of them still do."

"Well, this isn’t Louisiana, in case you hadn’t noticed. There are just two of us and hundreds of these monks. I like them, and I’ll be sorry for old Sam when his lifework backfires on him. But all the same, I wish I was somewhere else."

"I’ve been wishing that for weeks. But there’s nothing we can do until the contract’s finished and the transport arrives to fly us out."

"Of course," said Chuck thoughtfully, "we could always try a bit of sabotage."

"Like hell we could! That would make things worse."

"Not the way I meant. Look at it like this. The machine will finish its run four days from now, on the present twenty-hours-a-day basis. The transport calls in a week. O.K., then all we need to do is to find something that wants replacing during one of the overhaul periods -- something that will hold up the works for a couple of days. We’ll fix it, of course, but not too quickly. If we time matters properly, we can be down at the airfield when the last name pops out of the register. They won’t be able to catch us then."

"I don’t like it," said George. "It will be the first time I ever walked out on a job. Besides, it would make them suspicious. No, I’ll sit tight and take what comes."

"I still don’t like it," he said seven days later, as the tough little mountain ponies carried them down the winding road. "And don’t you think I’m running away because I’m afraid. I’m just sorry for those poor old guys up there, and I don’t want to be around when they find what suckers they’ve been. Wonder how Sam will take
it?"

"It’s funny," replied Chuck, "but when I said goodbye I got the idea he knew we were walking out on him -- and that he didn’t care because he knew the machine was running smoothly and that the job would soon be finished. After that -- well, of course, for him there just isn’t any After That . . ."

George turned in his saddle and stared back up the mountain road. This was the last place from which one could get a clear view of the lamasery. The squat, angular buildings were silhouetted against the afterglow of the sunset; here and there lights gleamed like portholes in the sides of an ocean liner. Electric lights, of course, sharing the same circuit as the Mark V. How much longer would they share it? wondered George. Would the monks smash up the computer in their rage and disappointment? Or would they just sit down quietly and begin their calculations all over again?

He knew exactly what was happening up on the mountain at this very moment. The High Lama and his assistants would be sitting in their silk robes, inspecting the sheets as the junior monks carried them away from the typewriters and pasted them into the great volumes. No one would be saying anything. The only sound would be the incessant patter, the never-ending rainstorm, of the keys hitting the paper, for the Mark V itself was utterly silent as it flashed through its thousands of calculations a second. Three months of this, thought George, was enough to start anyone climbing up the wall.

"There she is!" called Chuck, pointing down into the valley. "Ain’t she beautiful!"

She certainly was, thought George. The battered old DC-3 lay at the end of the runway like a tiny silver cross. In two hours she would be bearing them away to freedom and sanity. It was a thought worth savoring like a fine liqueur. George let it roll around in his mind as the pony trudged patiently down the slope.

The swift night of the high Himalayas was now almost upon them. Fortunately the road was very good, as roads went in this region, and they were both carrying torches. There was not the slightest danger, only a certain discomfort from the bitter cold. The sky overhead was perfectly clear and ablaze with the familiar, friendly stars. At least there would be no risk, thought George, of the pilot being unable to take off because of weather conditions. That had been his only remaining worry.
He began to sing but gave it up after a while. This vast arena of mountains, gleaming like whitely hooded ghosts on every side, did not encourage such ebullience. Presently George glanced at his watch.

"Should be there in an hour," he called back over his shoulder to Chuck. Then he added, in an afterthought, "Wonder if the computer’s finished its run? It was due about now."

Chuck didn’t reply, so George swung round in his saddle. He could just see Chuck’s face, a white oval turned toward the sky.

"Look," whispered Chuck, and George lifted his eyes to heaven. (There is always a last time for everything.)

Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.

David Burner's Making Peace With the 60s

The second counter-proposition, in its scholarly form, belongs almost entirely to American historians of the United States. It is the position that the things that happened in the sixties--there is full recognition that distinctive things did happen--on the whole had harmful effects on the societies in which they happened. The polemical form we have already met in the words I quoted from Margaret Thatcher. The more scholarly version, in its application to the United States, is well expressed in the title Allen J. Matusow chose for his general history of America in the period, The Unraveling of American Society, a theme not dissimilar to that expressed in the title of an earlier book by W. L. O'Neik, Coming Apart; recent versions of the `unraveling' thesis are John M. Blum's Years of Discord and David Burner's Making Peace With the 60s. In Destructive Generation, former radicals Peter Collier and David Horowitz maintained that sixties developments turned American society `into a collection of splinter groups'. All of these historians were deeply sympathetic to the liberal reform policies of President J. F. Kennedy and his advisers, as they were to the entire civil rights movement. They were profoundly shocked by the assassination of Kennedy in 1963, and then by the assassinations in 1968 of Martin Luther King and of Robert Kennedy. They deplored the way in which social welfare programmes were curtailed as a result of the colossal expenditure on the Vietnam war; even more they regretted the bitter divisions in American society provoked by that war, the often violent demonstrations, and the still more violent repressions by the police. They were shocked, again, by the split in the civil rights movement after 1964, with blacks moving towards violence and separatism; shocked too by the destructive and murderous rioting in the black ghettos in the major cities. They had put faith in the liberal instincts of the Democratic party, then found that party in utter turmoil by 1968, before its defeat by Richard Nixon and the Republicans. Havoc, largely involving white students and white police, was wreaked in 1968 and 1969; attacks by the secret terrorist organization, the Weathermen, continued into 1970, which was also the year in which white student protesters were shot dead at Kent State University. Horrific events, indeed. But they were not, in my view, indications of new fractures in American society; they were indications rather that fractures which had long existed and had been too long ignored were now being brought out into the open. The Vietnam War was a tragedy and a crime; but by 1973-4 the anti-war cause had achieved a wonderful victory. Despite the advent to power of Nixon and the Republicans, welfare programmes did continue, and in some cases were actually improved. American socially did not `unravel': forms of discrimination continued, but blacks did win basic civil rights, and some prospered as never before.

It will be a major theme of this book that it is a mistake to concentrate on politics and changes of government: the social and cultural movements I am concerned with continued largely irrespective of the political complexions of governments. If we look outside America, it is true that racial discrimination got worse in both Britain and France from about 1968 onwards. It is also indisputably true that in 1969-70 a new era of terrorism and violence, `the years of the bullet', began in Italy. We are not studying a `golden age'--there are no golden ages--and many appalling events took place in the sixties. We may well throw up our hands in horror, but we must also make long-term assessments. Italy survived its crisis, as America did not `come apart': on the other hand, it will be argued in this book, the true gains of the sixties proved enduring.

We now come to the most fraught field of contention when it comes to the scholarly analysis of the sixties, as well as the popular mythology. This counter-proposition is inextricably bound up with the arguments and debates which actually took place in the sixties, since most of the activists and protesters at the time themselves believed in it. At its heart lies what I shall call the Great Marxisant Fallacy: the belief that the society we inhabit is the bad bourgeois society, but that, fortunately, this society is in a state of crisis, so that the good society which lies just around the corner can be easily attained if only we work systematically to destroy the language, the values, the culture, the ideology of bourgeois society. (I say `Marxisant' because I am speaking of a broad metaphysical view about history and about how society works, derived from Marxism, but forming the basis for the structuralism, post-structuralism, and theories of ideology and language developed in the sixties.) In reality the society we live in has evolved through complex historical processes, very different from the Marxist nonsense about `the bourgeoisie' overthrowing the feudal aristocracy. It contains genuinely democratic elements as well as gross inequalities and abuses of power; the only thing we can do is to work as systematically and rationally as possible to reform that society. In the eyes of the upholders of the Great Marxisant Fallacy, of course, that opinion condemns me as a dupe of bourgeois ideology. Practically all the activists, student protesters, hippies, yippies, Situationists, advocates of psychedelic liberation, participants in be-ins and rock festivals, proponents of free love, members of the underground, and advocates of Black Power, women's liberation, and gay liberation believed that by engaging in struggles, giving witness, or simply doing their own thing they were contributing to the final collapse of bad bourgeois society. To say that is not to withold admiration from the activism and the idealism, nor to deny the many positive achievements of the protesters; but it is to recognize that their ultimate objectives were based on a fundamental fallacy. There was never any possibility of a revolution; there was never any possibility of a `counter-culture' replacing `bourgeois' culture. Modern society is highly complex with respect to the distribution of power, authority, and influence. Just as it was not formed by the simple overthrow of the aristocracy by the bourgeoisie, so, in its contemporary form, it does not consist simply of a bourgeois ruling class and a proletariat. Contemporary societies, as I shall stress throughout this book, are certainly class societies--using `class' as the ordinary people we shall be studying (as distinct from the ideologists and activists) used the term when, say, they talked of `upper-class education', `upper-middle-class professions', `lower-middle-class leisure activities', or `working-class housing', and not in the loaded Marxist way with its assumptions of class conflict and class ideologies.

Mention of the term `counter-culture' brings me to one of the most important aspects of the whole muddied field of controversy we are now tramping our way through. One of the most basic problems in the production and consumption of history is that many of the most important words we have to use are actually used in different ways, that is to say, have different meanings. `Culture' is one of the classic instances. Often the word is used as a collective noun embracing opera, painting, poetry, and so on, broadly what is dealt with in the arts, entertainments, and books pages of our posher newspapers. Sometimes `popular culture' is also spoken of, referring to films, popular music, romantic, crime, and other less ambitious fiction, and, perhaps, spectating at football matches. Sometimes in this book I use `culture' in that way--there is no space for elaborate reformulations. But when we come to terms like `counter-culture', `culture' is being used in a wider sense to mean `the network or totality of attitudes, values and practices of a particular group of human beings'. This definition is far from solving all of our problems, because much uncertainty remains as to the size of the `group of human beings' which would be appropriate. One might speak of American culture, or of aristocratic culture, or of youth culture, or, perhaps, of Western culture, signifying `the Western way of life'--all the attitudes and values and practices springing from the traditions of ancient Athens, modified by Christian religion, by the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, by the French Revolution, by Romanticism, by overseas conquests and colonialism, by the upheavals of the twentieth century. A single `culture', obviously, may be very big, or it may be quite small, depending upon the context in which the concept is being used. For myself, I intend throughout this book (though such is the slippery nature of language that it is always difficult to achieve total obedience even to self-imposed rules) to use the word `subculture' where I want to drive home the point that the `network' I am speaking of is, in the last analysis, a part of a larger network, or culture. Thus I speak of `youth subculture', because I do not believe that there was a `youth culture' which ever became completely independent of, or alternative to, the larger culture involving parents, educational institutions, commercial companies, technology, and the mass media. Indeed, it is one of the absolutely fundamental contentions of this book that the essence of what happened in the sixties is that large numbers of new subcultures, were created, which then expanded and interacted with each other, thus creating the pullulating flux which characterizes the era. I shall return to that, but meantime let us stick with the concept of `counter-culture'.

The term does originate within the period (1958-74) itself: those indulging in the various practices and activities I have already listed began to feel themselves to constitute a counter-culture. It was introduced to a limited audience by a young American academic, Theodore Roszak, in an article, `Youth and the Great Refusal' published in The Nation on 25 March 1968:

The counter culture is the embryonic cultural base of New Left politics, the effort to discover new types of community, new family patterns, new sexual mores, new kinds of livelihood, new aesthetic forms, new personal identities on the far side of power politics, the bourgeois home, and the Protestant work ethic.

The term went into wide usage when Roszak put together a number of previously published essays as a book and called the book The Making of a Counter Culture. Readers of the over-written and elaborately rhetorical introduction which Roszak wrote specially for this potential (and actual) bestseller perhaps did not notice how muted his claims actually were on behalf of his counter-culture: he surmised that it might over the next four generations `transform this disoriented civilization of ours into something a human being can identify as home'. His counter-culture consisted of `a strict minority of the young and a handful of their adult mentors': it was opposed to `technocratic society', and drew its ideas from `the psychology of alienation, oriental mysticism, psychedelic drugs, and communitarian experiments'. In the same year another young professional, Charles Reich, in an even more speculative and less precise work, The Greening of America, suggesting that adoption of the new lifestyles and new ways of thinking would completely transform the world. These books give us insights into concerns of the time about the spoliation caused by the unrestrained application of technology and into some of the euphoric responses; they cannot be taken as embodying authoritative historical assessments. For myself, I accept that the term `counter-culture' was and is widely used, and that most people have a firm sense of what it signifies: my position is that it is a convenient term, valuable if it is deployed in the manner of everyday usage but dangerous if it is taken to imply any Marxisant assumptions about the dialectic, the overthrow of bourgeois society, the triumph of the alternative society. (The theory of the dialectic, I should explain, poses a sharp conflict between existing (bourgeois) culture and an oppositional culture, this conflict resulting in a new stage in human development, a new culture or society--there is no more evidence for the existence of `the dialectic' than there is for the existence of `the Holy Ghost'.)

It is, then, perfectly legitimate to use the term `counter-culture' to refer to the many and varied activities and values which contrasted with, or were critical of, the conventional values and modes of established society: the contrast, in slightly hackneyed common usage, is between `counter-culture' and `mainstream culture'. These are terms I shall occasionally use in this book, though my preference is for using the adjective, `counter-cultural', rather than the substantive, `counter-culture'. The crucial point is that there was no unified, integrated counter-culture totally and consistently in opposition to mainstream culture. When I demonstrate the many commercial transactions between those who probably saw themselves as mainly belonging to counter-culture, and those who indisputably belonged to money-making mainstream culture, I am not condemning or mocking the former. We can none of us escape from the larger culture to which we belong--and, in any case, there is nothing inherently objectionable about commercial transactions. Pointing out that hippies and drop-outs, while in some ways making the most complete break from mainstream society, did absolutely nothing to further the reform, let alone the supercession, of that society is not to condemn or mock them either, but merely to point out that what is called the counter-culture was in reality made up of a large number of very varied subcultures. Sometimes commentators, particularly those writing on American society, make a distinction between the counter-culture and `the Movement' or `the New Left': there is no rigid distinction, but in speaking of counter-culture the emphasis is on dress, general values, lifestyles, leisure activities, while in speaking of the Movement or the New Left the preoccupation is entirely with those who were genuinely politically active and took part in protests and demonstrations. The British `New Left', a more restricted grouping of non-dogmatic Marxists, appeared in the fifties; in France and Italy the term `New Left' is applied to the non-Communist radical groups consolidating in the later sixties, above all the `student movement'. These are convenient labels and it is sensible to make use of them, provided always that they are not made to carry a greater load of assumptions and implications than they can bear, and that their deployment is not made a substitute for fully substantiated explanations.