It has been a quiet day fortunately. A hair cut and nap and reading. The weather was very wet this afternoon and will likely continue that way tomorrow. I won't even go near a mall . . . total insanity!
Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:29 (average 5:48). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes
Huffington Post — Canada’s refugee policy is world class, and the big secret behind its success is its private sponsorship program, according to a former Toronto mayor.
“I think at the end of the day the absolute brilliance of the Canadian refugee program is that it relies on private groups to support the refugees and integrate them into Canadian society,” John Sewell, who helped resettle tens of thousands of people in the city decades ago, told The Huffington Post Canada in an interview.
“No other country has this kind of program,” he said. “It’s absolutely brilliant.”
In the late 1970s, the federal government began to feel pressure to increase its intake of Indochinese refugees uprooted by the Vietnam War.
It was around this time, in 1978, when Canada’s private sponsorships program launched. Since then, citizen groups have fundraised millions to support refugee families both financially and emotionally for upwards to a year.
The program has helped resettle over 200,000 refugees across the country.
I was involved in my church's sponsorship committee in the late '70s when we supported a Vietnamese family. It was a lot of work but so worthwhile. My ESL student is a refugee from South Sudan via Uganda and I know I am making a difference. People helping people is what life should be about. Here is a Care2 petition urging the US Congress to legalise private sponsorship which I hope you'll sign. Just click on the link and it will open a new page with the petition.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/605/374/216/tell-u.s.-to-legalize-private-sponsorship-of-refugees/
Alternet — Can you imagine him? Here is, in other words, a dark-skinned, bearded, unkempt Middle Eastern Jew, acting all kinds of suspicious, ranting on street corners and hanging around with prostitutes and fanatics, rejecting money, violence and the ruling class, seen by Muslims as the divine precursor to their prophet as he lures the innocent and the seditious into his lawless cult of pacifism and peace.
Jesus in America, today? Almost certainly to be shunned, feared, derided. Depending where he wandered, also likely harassed, spit upon, even beaten – that is, if he was allowed into the country at all.
Looks quite like a Muslim, you see. Might be an ISIS sympathizer. Definitely radicalized. Got a Facebook feed full of strange proclamations, rapturous interventions, cryptic references to how you’re to seek the divine within, silly. Who knows what he might be up to?
Do you doubt it? Of course you can’t. I mean, just look at him.
Many years ago, I was introduced to liberation theology which Wikipedia describes as
…"an interpretation of Christian faith out of the experience of the poor…an attempt to read the Bible and key Christian doctrines with the eyes of the poor",[1] or "the message of the gospels", restored from "the first three centuries [of Christianity in which] it was … a pacifist … religion of the poor".[2] Detractors have called it Christianized Marxism.[3]
We don't hear the term liberation theology very often any more but nonetheless, I certainly see Jesus in that light, not as the right wing evangelical supply-side Jesus, the complete antithesis of the authentic Jesus. The author concludes:
But the sad truth is, the real, dark-skinned, pacifist prophet, the hippie mystic Jesus of yore, preaching peace, loving thy enemy, inner divine wisdom? He wouldn’t come anywhere near America today.
Too many guns, you see. He wouldn’t have a prayer.
I am not proselytising, but rather trying to demonstrate the difference between the authentic Jesus and the right wing evangelical supply-side Jesus that is seen in Republican politics.
Mother Jones — "The end of JONAH signals that conversion therapy, however packaged, is fraudulent—plain and simple," David Dinielli, deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement. The center filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs. …
In a pretrial decision in February, Judge Bariso wrote, "The theory that homosexuality is a disorder is not novel—but like the notion that the earth is flat and the sun revolves around it—instead is outdated and refuted."
How long will it take to ban all conversion therapy? Being gay or lesbian or transgendered is not a learned behaviour or chosen lifestyle. Who in their right mind would choose to be discriminated against, denied opportunities etc? Good judgement!
My Universe —
A couple of years ago, Dandelion on Care2 shared this humourous video with me and I have been singing it ever since.
10 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 19/12/2015”
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HP: Canada leads the way for refugees. We need to do the same. Now!!!
Signed petition also.
AlterNet: So true now. "Put it this way: you’re not about to see a dark-skinned Middle Eastern Jewish baby lying in any front-yard nativity scene in Texas this year, you know? It’s simply not done." He'd probably get shot, by the rootin' tootin' cowboys here. So sad.
My Universe: Cute kitty! The video speaks volumes of Christmas and is so Spot-ON!!
House cleaning, and getting ready for company. Best to all, as we celebrate the Holidays, and the incoming New Year. Take care, my prayers for Peace on Earth, and see y'all later. Take care, and Thanks, Lynn.
Alternet
It reminded me of a popular poster to counter Rethuglican "Truthers" we've probably all seen:
It doesn't matter how many times we've seen it. It bears infinite repeating. Thanks.
Just hopping by again for a quick read, Lynn. Your description of your day with a cat nap made me realize that perhaps I should listen to my own advise now and again and take a short nap myself. Thanks for the post, loved the kitten and the video of the stuck Santa.
5:28 Odd, the candle is presumably wax, but it's the gingerbread boy that's melting.
Huff Po – I don't believe in private companies doing things the government can do better and should do. But this is different. This is something that government can't do very well, and citizens should be allowed to. And so I said on the petition.
AlterNet – I don't think there's anything wrong with people being able to see art of a Jesus that looks like them. As in Alfred Burt's carol "Some children see him." The problem comes when one image becomes so pervasive that it pushes aside everything else. ANd, unfortunately, that's what we have. That's when it becomes time to throw in some historical accuracy, such as this 2002 more-or-less forensic reconstruction. As an aside, in one way white American Christians do not take their white images seriously enough. As meek, mild, and peaceful as the images are, Christians who took them seriously would be a lot less aggressive and shrill than what we in fact have.
MoJo – It's too bad so many straight people don't have the self-awareness to realize that they didn't make any choice to be straight. They just are. (Or did they? Hmmm. It seems to me that if you think gay people choose to be gay, that calls no one's sexuality into question except your own.)
Universe – I trust that isn't hot chocolate under the whipped cream, seeing as it is toxic to cats (and dogs).
Dandelion has a new one this year (well, new to me) but I think this one is still funnier.
Good luck with any Talibangelical christianist following your "Forensic Reconstruction Jesus".
Stalking, harassing, berating, name-calling – even stoning – I could see.
But following that “Mooslum” terrorist looking guy? Not a chance!
And I didn't know about chocolate being toxic. (Plus the whip cream's probably not best for the kitten either – but it makes for a helluva cute photo.)
http://www.catbehaviorassociates.com/nine-foods-you-shouldnt-feed-your-cat/
https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/people-foods-avoid-feeding-your-pets
Oh, good grief, no, no Talibangelical would go within a mile of ths Jesus, except, as you say, to stalk or harass. And, truthfully, it's also a bit (OK, a great deal) optimistic expecting them to give a rat's patoot for science. But I find it comforting to see an image with some failrly solid science behind it. But then, I have some unusual taste in religious art in general.
4:12 I had to stop and take a couple of bites out of the gingerbread man.
CA has contracted with nonprofit agencies to help integrate refugees since the 1970's–part of why such a melting pot.
I signed the petition. Once again, when it comes to human rights, Canada is ahead of us.
Alternet: Jesus was a liberal. The Republicans would have him deported!
Mother Jones: My gay and lesbian friends have had a hard enough time without this "therapy". I hope it is soon outlawed. Maybe this case will speed ip the process.
My Universe: I really enjoyed that video.