Handwriting on the Wall: What's the Surprisingly Good News about the Decline of Religion in the US?

by Nomad

A interesting podcast about one man's call for an open discussion at a Christian website and the surprising results.
News about the overall decline of religion in American actually may be good news for a Church that has disconnected from the real world. 

The Impossibility of Dialogue

If you've never heard of On the Media,(OTM) you might need a small introduction. It's one of NPR fastest growing programs and is now heard on 300 public radio stations. These weekly one-hour shows cover a range of topics focused primarily on how the media shapes our lives and our opinions.

In the featured podcast, we meet a young man named Will Rogers from Texas. After discovering a website named GodTube- a kind of YouTube for Christians, The site is sponsored by Liberty University, the old stomping ground of Jerry Falwell.

After exploring the site, Rogers was disappointed at seeing how the people he met there seemed so  cut off from the larger world. Quite literally, they were preaching to the choir.
Where was the dialogue in that?

To rectify what he saw as a stumbling block of his faith, he set out to start a dialogue of different perspectives. What happened next, Meredith Haggerty reports, was not exactly what Rogers had anticipated.

Epicurus and the Prayers of Men: How Materialism Perverted the Quest for Happiness

by Nomad

The lost philosophy of one ancient Greek offers an answer to what's gone wrong with modern society. 

Quest for a Happy Life

The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus lived about 300 years before Christ. His writings survive in mostly in notes collected by later biographers. It's enough to understand, in a general way, the philosophy he taught back then and why the ancients thought so much of the man and his ideas.

According to Epicurus, the study of philosophy was actually a quest of a happy tranquil life, which he defined as a life free of pain, filled with tranquility and free from fear of things that could not be controlled. A happy life, he taught, could only be attained "by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends." 

Friendship, indeed, was key to happiness. 

Epicurus held that a wise man would feel the torture of a friend no less than his own, and would die for a friend rather than betray him, for otherwise his own life would be confounded.

Later his teaching would be criticized as being hedonistic since he taught that pleasure and pain were measures of good and evil.
Other philosophers would push the envelope even further with the idea of "eat, drink and be merry." An insouciant and indifferent life filled with luxury and no thought of tomorrow. 

The Romans later seized upon this Epicurean philosophy as a license to ostentatious excess and greed on a scale never seen before.

Wealth was flowing into the Roman capital and on an "unprecedented scale in the form of tribute, taxes, and profits from commerce and banking." It wasn't just gold and silver, but luxuries items too. All meant for the ruling class with none at all for the lower classes. (The trickle down had yet to be discovered, I imagine.)

Misfired: How Donald Trump's Security Fears Betray his Support of NRA and Gun Ownership Rights

by Nomad

The hypocrisy of the Republican candidates once again comes to the forefront, this time with the support of the NRA. If Second Amendments rights are so vital, then why doesn't Trump put his money where his mouth is? 

The Canceled Rallies of a Fearful Candidate

A couple of days ago, CNN reported that Trump was forced to cancel a rally in Chicago and Cincinnati after consulting local law enforcement. Trump's campaign staff issued a statement which read that the candidate had determined..

"that for the safety of all of the tens of thousands of people that have gathered in and around the arena, tonight’s rally will be postponed to another date.”

Many who have watched the increase in violent imagery in Trump's speeches wouldn't be surprised that things have become overheated.

There's no question that security at Trump rallies is becoming more and more problematic. As with any mass public event in the age of terrorism, security is extremely tight.

When it involves a presidential candidate - especially one known for his fiery rhetoric- the security has to be extensive and layered. It is coupled with a strong police presence with careful searches at entrances and exits of the rally halls. 

Naturally we are not allowed to know the full extent or the details of the security plans but suffice to say, they are extensive and thorough. In short, it is a nightmare for the people who deal with public safety. 

Just a few days ago, US Secret Service agents had to rush onto the stage to surround the Republican presidential candidate.
Supposedly there was an attempt by a member of the crowd to get close to Trump. The frantic reaction was normal but embarrassing nonetheless. 

Despite all that, the security staff has been incapable of filtering out protesters. They are only able to remove them. Trump claims these noisy demonstrators are interfering with his right to free speech.

European Perspective on Trump: Have Americans Lost Their Minds?

by Nomad

And it is very possible they might be correct.

A Most Dangerous Man

Certainly the support for Donald Trump has a lot of people scratching their heads. For some Americans, he is a source of worry, for others a reason to cheer "USA! USA!" Still others have come to the conclusion that he represents a Republican party past its expiration date, incapable of producing a sane vision for America.

But what do Europeans think?

Attempting to capture that European bewilderment and concern a recent BBC article explained:

Here's a sample of the public disapproval. Germany's Der Spiegel has called Trump the most dangerous man in the world. Britain's David Cameron says his plan to ban Muslims is divisive and unhelpful.

The French liberal newspaper Liberation has described him as a nightmare turned reality. JK Rowling tweeted that he's worse than Voldemort. A recent Economist cover has a picture of Trump dressed as Uncle Sam with just one word, "Really?" That pretty much sums up the mood of global elites.

It's not just the elites. Common folk have also made their opinions felt.

A petition to have him banned from the U.K. it gained 500,000 signatures. That was more than enough to force Britain's parliament to consider a debate on the issue.
The members did discuss the petition but eventually concluded such a ban would violate Trump's free speech.
Ironically, the same free speech he uses to stir up Islamophobia. 

According to Newsweek, Trump elegantly confirms European's anti-American attitudes. 

Remember When Reagan Nominated an Anti-Labor Lobbyist of a Neo-Nazi, Pro-KKK Propaganda Machine?

by Nomad

Early in Reagan's first term, the administration suffered a minor setback with one of its nominations. The problem? The nominee's work with an organization that had long been a propaganda machine for the most extreme right wing and dangerous organizations.

Beware The Ides of March

On 30 March 1981, two events in Washington occurred: one  of them stunned the nation. The other event was completely overshadowed the other and is largely forgotten today.

On that rainy afternoon, at about 2:30. President Reagan was leaving a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington. Waving to the small crowd, the president stepped out onto the sidewalk on his way to his limo. Before he got there, an attempt was made on his life. 

Reagan and three others were shot and wounded by demented attacker John Hinckley, Jr.

The FBI said the weapon was a Saturday Night Special that Hinckley purchased last October for about $25 in a pawn shop in Dallas - the city where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.

It was not immediately apparent how seriously Reagan's injuries were.

Only a few days before the assassination attempt, vice president George H. W. Bush received the assignment of running crisis management in case of emergency.
On that day, Bush was out of Washington, in Ft. Worth/Dallas as it turned out. Believing that the president had escaped intact, Bush flew on to make a speech in Austin.

With the vice president on his way back, the Secretary of State  Alexander Haig, in an effort, to calm things down told reporters that he was in control.  

As of now, I am in control here, in the White House, pending the return of the vice president and in close touch with him. If something came up, I would check with him, of course.

As a war hawk, Haig's declaration sent a shiver down the spines of a lot of people. With his long military history in wars like Korea, Vietnam and as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe commanding all U.S. and NATO forces in Europe, his words should have been a comfort.

The world held its breath.

Reagan's hawkish comments about the Soviet Union had some world leaders uneasy and with this attempt on his life, nobody was ready to predict the US reaction.

An Hour Earlier

Less than an hour before the attempt on the president' life, something far less earth-shaking had happened. As was expected, the White House spokesman announced the nominations for many of the second-tier positions in various agencies.