Better Presidential Debates (comedy)

Wisdom Quarterly; (NPR, Oct. 6, 2012); DrShrapn3l (therumble2012.com)   

  

What if nobody won? (Getty/ChipSomodevilla)

While failed-comedian Bill O'Reilly (FOX News) and faux-newser Jon Stewart (Comedy Central) duked it out, there was another much more serious alternative presidential debate presented by NPR (National Public Radio). It was between third-party candidates Jill Stein (Green) and Gary Johnson (Libertarian).
 

The NPR third-party candidate debate

Green Jill Stein (jillstein.org)

What's it like to be a third-party candidate running for president? Ralph Nader can tell us: "You're excluded from the debates," he says. "You spend an exhausting amount of time, until Labor Day, trying to get over the ballot access barriers. Your petitioners are harassed in the streets; you're subjected to baseless lawsuits by one party or another."
  
Nader has run for president three times -- four if you count the time he ran unofficially. In 2000, he managed to win almost 3 percent of the national vote.

• LISTEN: Third-Party Debate (11:31)

Libertarian Gary Johnson

To this day, getting a third-party candidate into a presidential debate is practically impossible.
  
[The one-party system we have, halved in two, has made sure of that.] The Commission on Presidential Debates says that to be included, you have to poll 15 percent with voters. That's why George Farah, founder of Open Debates, a group that wants the system reformed, thinks the commission is the main problem.

"This commission exists for the principle purpose of protecting and strengthening the two parties," Farah says. "Every four years they allow the major party candidates to negotiate agreements that dictate many of the terms of the debates -- including the exclusion of popular third-party voices."
  
So given the two major party candidates had 90 minutes and at least 50 million viewers for their debate last Wednesday, [NPR] decided to invite two of the third-party candidates to a debate of our own.

Gary Johnson is the Libertarian Party's nominee. Jill Stein is the Green Party's nominee. They joined moderator -- and host of weekends on All Things Considered -- Guy Raz for a debate focusing on domestic issues: the economy, health care, and the role of government. More

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Bible: "Aliens" in Sodom and Gomorrah

Wisdom Quarterly (ANALYSIS); biblical research by HilaryBilaryBop

   

M'Romney (Moroni) goes Open Cond*m Style

Ever wonder what they were doing in the wicked Dead Sea twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah before the space ships attacked?
  
These biblical sites -- where we get the English words sodomy and gonorrhea -- were not so much "Anything Goes" gay towns like our Hollywood and New York.
  
We explore the idea that one of the worst crimes in these depraved metropolises was the widespread abuse of "aliens." But they were up to other things, too: using pharmaceuticals (poisons),  a practice misleadingly translated as "sorcery" by Bible scholars and more.

  

To hear the God(s) of the Christian Bible tell it -- rather than the conservatives and Republicans -- the real problem was the mistreatment of aliens.

 

Did either the Middle Eastern bodhisattva (Jesus/Issa), his God father, or the Bible favor poverty? Of course not. The Vatican and panhandling Protestant ministers may want Christians to think so. But the example the West's most famous prophet gave was to eat and live like birds (Matt 13:1-23), who live abundantly and do not worry (Matt 6:24-34; Luke 12:24-27), instead taking necessities and life as they come.

Ancient aliens?

What are they up do down there?

The Book of Deuteronomy lists categories of people who are needy in Christian/Jewish terms: aliens, orphans, and widows. Ancient law in Israel (not the make believe place claimed by violent invaders who use ancient texts to rationalize their misappropriation in the name of their tribal God) dictates that Israelites assist women whose husbands had died since such loss generally resulted in impoverishment.

Obama was a Muslim (myfellowamerican.tv)

But what about the reference to “aliens” (NRSV translation)? The original Hebrew refers to foreigners or “strangers” (KJV). An ancient alien Israel was a non-Israelite living (“sojourning”) in Israel -- or anyone living in among another tribe). Such foreigners would have been dependent on land owning natives for wages/sustenance. Only Israelites could inherit land, which could not be bought or sold.

"He's not a Muslim; he's a Globalist." - Alex Jones (InfoWars.com)

Is there nothing I won't do or say to win?

What would racist Sheriff Arpaio or Gov. Romney do about immigrants in Arizona? If Romney says Pres. Obama is a Muslim, is he suggesting he himself is a true "Israelite" (according to biblical definition, not modern residency)? What does the Bible demand be done for the sake of foreign “aliens”? Just as it was illegal to oppress orphans and widows, it was illegal to mistreat foreigners (Exodus 22:21-22). There should be no distinction between the alien and the native (Numbers 15:14-16). Aliens get God’s blessings like native Israelites (Ezekiel 47:21-23). They share in the covenant with the tribal Jewish God as well (Deuteronomy 29:10-12).

Racist Arpaio has proof birth cert is fake

The most compelling thing about the world's aliens, all of whom are illegal, is that European immigrants didn't bother to ask or check with North America’s native population. Like modern Zionists, they just invaded, occupied, committed genocide, then settled the territory anew. So we might exhibit more compassion (or consider reparations). The Bible agrees with an empathic approach:

“You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22:21).
“You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9).
“You shall also love the alien for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:19).

Space gods (like YHWH) claim the land, and who are humans to argue with superior firepower as taught to them by their gods and idols and governments? We are at best tenants, at worst interlopers:

“The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine [God]; with me [God] you are but aliens and tenants” (Leviticus 25:23).
“For we are aliens and transients before you [God], as were all our ancestors [from space]; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope” (1 Chronicles 29:15).
“Hear my prayer, O Lords [plural], and give ear to my cry; do not hold your peace at my tears. For I am your passing guest, an alien, alike all my forebears” (Psalm 39:12).

God's own army, an arm of the MIC

This is how one culture dealt with the serious issue of aliens in our midst, ancient immigration. At the root of the immigration issue in modern America is poverty. So long as the CIA and more clandestine agencies continue to destabilize sovereign countries, it will continue to be an issue. As the world financial situation worsens (by design), we can only expect it to worsen until we are all at each other's necks.

People who oppose gay marriage and homosexuality “on religious grounds” often appeal to the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah in support of their beliefs. The truth is the space Gods of the Bible destroyed these towns because they practiced “sorcery” (dispensing pharmaceuticals), bad karma (actions), and sexual acts the space geneticists found “abominable.”

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was because they did not show hospitality to space aliens -- the "angels" (messengers) of God sent to determine whether or not there were 10 righteous individuals in the city on whose behalf God could spare the cities in accordance with an agreement the gods made with Abraham. Angels who appeared as strange humans were met with hospitality by only one man. God's lesson was not anti-gay; it was anti-inhospitality to aliens.

Prior to the destruction, Abraham bargains with God(s) not to destroy the cities, even though neither he nor his people live in them (except a nephew) . Abraham stands up for their cause with very little self-interest because of the possibility that there are good, decent people living there.

If the money devoted to building security walls ("fences") -- manning check points, bulldozing homes, misappropriating ancient lands and homesteads, stealing water, patrolling, imprisoning, torturing, disappearing, starving, writing anti-immigrant laws, and violating the civil rights of Palestinians and aliens in America, many of who in both cases are indigenous peoples, were instead spent on helping aliens, not only would everyone's lives be improved, our charity would have the added benefit of fixing the immigration problem.

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Obama, Buddhism and Taxes.

With great respect and admiration of John McCain I am elated that Senator Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States of America. Of course mainly this comes from my political views but I do want to speak of his ability to unite America and the world.

Barack Obama seems uniquely positioned to be a political leader able to unite people of all races, religions and citizens of the world. He may not know of the Buddhist teaching of interdependence but that is exactly what he has cultivated. He has been able to inspire people from all over America and the world with many different political views that we have more in common than not and that we have a responsibility to help each other. He has reminded us that the division of the past 8 years has caused a lot of suffering both here in America and in the world.

In reality he reminds us that we are dependent upon each other if we want to increase happiness, success and peace in this world. He reminds us that we aren't America being the world but America being apart of the world again. In many ways his election surpasses politics and speaks to a greater hope and vision for America and the world. It is a historic moment that despite your politics you can't help but rejoice for what it means to overcoming our differences and barriers in regards to race. We took one step further in America last night in realizing the true oneness of all beings that is our reality.

His domestic vision is nothing short of an understanding of the interdependence of suchness. In other words if certain Americans have been financially successful in this country it is not simply because of a person's hard work. It is greatly dependent upon the efforts of others that have helped position them into the place where they reap great success. Perhaps they were born into a wealthy family that enabled them to go to university and earn a degree, which helped them earn a lot of money. Or perhaps a certain teacher inspired them to be interested in learning and If it wasn't for them they probably would not be in the position that they are in. Just the very fact of being born in America where opportunity abounds requires sharing of ones good fortune.

Maybe their karma has given them great opportunities such as being born with a gift for a profession that is highly valued in society. However, it is that very same karma, which demands that they give back to others through (for example) paying more taxes so that others might be able to better care for their family. Or so that even more people will be able to afford the health care that all beings deserve. How can we stand by and watch people suffer from sickness when we perhaps can afford to pay a little more in taxes to ease the suffering of sickness for our fellow beings? Yes karma blesses us but if we greedily do not want to share our fair share of that good karma with others then that good karma will undoubtedly disappear away from our next birth.

If one is took look mindfully at money we can not help but realize that in reality it is not ours--nothing is ours. There is nothing that we can say that we did independent of others. In some way we are all effected for better or worse by others. This is not to say that I believe in a communist society because I don't but it does say that to whom much is given, much is required. We only need look at the sharing of resources that occurs in monasteries to understand how sharing a certain amount of wealth is a value greatly shared by Buddhism. Especially if we believe that Buddha and monks are our examples of how to improve our karma to achieve liberation from samsara.

Being in a higher income bracket and therefore paying more in taxes is also a way to guard against the power of the ego-self. Money often causes more problems then not as it is an attempt to rid ourselves of suffering through things that do not last nor grant lasting happiness. The ego-self then says, well we're not happy because we don't have enough money, we need more!! How often do see the rich celebrities of the world suffer greatly despite their mountains of money? They become hungry ghosts. In the end money is nothing more than another attachment and I personally find that I get more happiness from giving money to the needy than buying another t.v.

~Peace to all beings~

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