{"id":17999,"date":"2015-12-19T23:57:45","date_gmt":"2015-12-20T07:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=17999"},"modified":"2015-12-19T23:57:45","modified_gmt":"2015-12-20T07:57:45","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-19122015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/19\/squatchs-open-thread-19122015\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch\u2019s Open Thread 19\/12\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

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!<\/span><\/p>\n

Puzzle<\/strong> — Today’s took me 3:29 (average 5:48). To do it, <\/span>click here<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. How did you do?<\/span><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Huffington Post<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — 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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“No other country has this kind of program,” he said. “It’s absolutely brilliant.”<\/p>\n

In the late 1970s, the federal government began to feel pressure to increase its intake of Indochinese refugees uprooted by the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n

\"vietnam<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The program has helped resettle over 200,000 refugees across the country.<\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.thepetitionsite.com\/605\/374\/216\/tell-u.s.-to-legalize-private-sponsorship-of-refugees\/<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Alternet<\/span><\/a><\/strong> — 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.<\/p>\n

\"Jesus<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"Jesus<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

Do you doubt it? Of course you can’t. I mean, just look at him.<\/p>\n

Many years ago, I was introduced to liberation theology which <\/span>Wikipedia <\/span><\/a><\/strong>describes as  <\/span><\/p>\n

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…"an interpretation of Christian faith out of the experience of the poor…an attempt to read the <\/span>Bible<\/span><\/a> and key <\/span>Christian doctrines<\/span><\/a> with the eyes of the poor<\/span><\/strong>",[1]<\/a><\/sup> 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]<\/a><\/sup> Detractors have called it Christianized Marxism<\/a>.[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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:<\/span><\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

Too many guns, you see. He wouldn’t have a prayer.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mother Jones<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — "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<\/a>. The center filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs.  …<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In a pretrial decision in February, Judge Bariso wrote<\/a>, "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." <\/p>\n

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!<\/span><\/p>\n

My Universe<\/strong><\/span> — <\/p>\n

\"santa<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A couple of years ago, Dandelion on Care2 shared this humourous video with me and I have been singing it ever since.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n