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God herself decrees every sperm is sacred
Expanded from the 2-12-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune
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Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed.
Everybody knows the war is over.
Everybody knows the good guys lost.
Everybody knows the fight was fixed.
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.
That's how it goes. Everybody knows.
HAT TRICK: Barbwire wins 3rd straight Nevada Press Association First-Place Award
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SUING FOR SCHOOLS
Updated 8-30-2011
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Be well. Raise hell.
Andrew
Click here for selected on-demand re-runs from the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Barbwire.TV archivesBarbwire.TV:
15-year overnight success
Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008The Barbwire's Greatest Hits
Highlights from radio days
mp3 file
HAT TRICK: Barbwire wins 3rd straight Nevada Press Association First-Place Award
The arrogance of little men saying that they speak for God was on full display this past week.
God has apparently ordered his guys to reassert control over women worldwide. Islam and Hinduism are already bad enough, so I guess Christendom is just playing catchup via the recent dustup over birth control.
True-believing zealots are always victims of their own prejudices. Things are a certain way because things have always been so.
"Always" is usually limited to one's own brief lifespan and narrow experience. Pretty much all the rest must be taken on faith. (Jesus of Nazareth probably didn't have a birth certificate.)
Refusal to read history is worse than historical revisionism, especially if you believe nothing that Fox News hasn't got on video.
How many Catholics know that their basic rituals — the ones I learned as an altar boy — were lifted from ceremonies glorifying Roman emperors as gods? Or that the bedrock of their religious philosophy is based on supposition popularized by Saints Thomas Aquinas and Augustine? (Jesus got back-burnered somewhere in the Fourth Century when the marketing guys staged a corporate takeover.)
I've been reading Aquinas' seminal (more on that later) Summa Theologica since 1959.
Here's a quote from my freshman high school textbook: "In the face of widespread (Protestant) denial of the power of the human intellect to reason to the existence of God, the Vatican Council [1] solemnly defended the validity of intellectual knowledge as distinct from sense knowledge and defined not only that God can be known by reason, but also how 'through those things that are made,' i.e., from His created effects. This definition is a restatement of the teaching of both the Old and New Testament (Wisdom 13, 1; Romans 1, 20)." (O'Connell, David, Notes from the Summa on God and His Creatures, Providence College Press, 1956, at 33).
Thomas Aquinas, purely through internal supposition, presumed to read the mind of God. Primitives have been doing the same for millennia. Worship the sun, the moon, stars, trees, rocks, things that go bump in the night, anything you don't understand.
Voltaire (François Marie Arouet) once said that God is a comedian playing to an audience afraid to laugh.She played a long distance joke on dear ole St. Tommy. The punchline came about 700 years after he died. One of Aquinas' five suppositional proofs for the existence of God lies in observance of order in the universe. (Fr. O'Connell would probably call it "sense knowledge.")
Alas, pesky scientists figured out that chaos is exactly how our particular corner of reality is organized. The only people with perfectly orderly brainwaves are the criminally insane. Regular folks are a chaotic bunch, just like the observable physical universe.
Father O' and St. Tommy get further lost in space when it comes to sex.
GROUND CONTROL TO MAJOR TOM
"It is evident that the intellective principle in man is a principle transcending matter, for it has an operation in which the body does not take part. And therefore it is impossible that the power which is in the semen be productive of the intellectual principle." (Fr. O'Connell's translation of Summa Question 118, article 2)
"Thus, every child is more God's than the parents', since in His government of the world He produces the human body mediately, i.e., through second causes" [called parents], "but the human soul immediately," O'Connell instructed us horny teenagers. (Notes at 166)
St. Tom continues "the body has nothing whatever to do in the operation of the intellect." (Brain waves caused by chemical electricity were apparently unknown in the 13th Century.)
"Therefore, the power of the intellectual principle, as intellectual, cannot reach the semen. Hence the Philosopher (Aristotle) says 'It follows that the intellect alone comes from without.'"
What devilishly convenient circular logic. The intellect comes from God (Aquinas was all intellect), and sweaty bodies are mere husks, vehicles, instruments, sexual objects.Thus, as Monty Python sang it, every sperm is sacred. (Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, theatrical release, Universal, 1983)
Here's the capper from St. Tommy hisself: "It is therefore heretical to say that the intellectual soul is transmitted with the semen."
How does he know that? Why, intuitively. Suppositionally. Superstitiously. Faithfully. Intellectually. Out of thin blue air.
Thus was spawned the twisted rationale against birth control which is all over the news yet today.
I'll give the prodigious priest some credit, though. Aquinas never looks for legitimacy by asserting that he had some psychedelic vision, at least not until the end.
While saying mass not long before he died, a great change came over him.
"All I have written seems as straw," Aquinas said.
His last writing was ironically a commentary on the sexy biblical Song of Solomon, composed at the request of Cistercian monks, historically the most physically deprived order of the church. (Aquinas I, Brittanica Great Books, 1952, at vi)
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REWRITING HISTORY. Sunday's Grammy Awards trumpet the first reunion of The Beach Boys in more than 20 years. Bull. They crossed union picket lines at the Reno Hilton during the 1995 Hot August Strike at Hot August Nights. They belonged to three unions and Mike Love even lived in the Lake Tahoe area. Appeals to their unions in Los Angeles and calls to Love's home failed to move them.
HOT AUGUST STRIKE AT HOT AUGUST NIGHTS — Nevada United Plant Guard Workers of America Local 1010 members in the heat in front of the Reno Hilton during the 1996 Hot August Strike during the Hot August Nights rock'n'rods nostalgiafest, the region's largest special event. Left to right are Jack Stratton, Jay Vanderpool, Al Corral and Chuck Fisher. The outdoor arena where the Beach Boys appeared can be seen in the right background. Although they are members of three unions, the Beach Boys crossed the picket line and performed. [To read the inspiring story of the little union that could, click here.]Be well. Raise hell.
______________[1] This is a reference to "Vatican I (which) ended in 1870, and before that was the Council of Trent which concluded 448 years ago." (Calvo, Bishop Randolph; Bishop Calvo's homily for Diocesan Conference; published in the Northern Nevada Catholic, inserted into the 2-11-2012 Reno Gazette-Journal; page 2) The much higher profile Vatican II was convened by Pope John XXIII in 1962.
____________Andrew Barbano is a 43-year Nevadan, chair of the Nevada César Chávez Committee, producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Daily Sparks Tribune since 1988.
Smoking Guns...
Profound jokes from The Almighty courtesy of Voltaire, Rod Steiger, Larry Gelbart & John Denver
with a special appearance by George Burns as God Hisself• Barbwire by Barbano: Christmas 2000: a scientific snapshot of God (/barbwire/barb00/barb12-24-00.html)
• Barbwire by Barbano: Laughing gods for Easter bunnies and black whales (/barbwire/barb00/barb4-23-00.html)
• Barbwire by Barbano: What else is new? (/barbwire/barb06/barb6-18-06.html)
• Barbwire by Barbano: God for laughs (/barbwire/barb08/barb4-27-08.html)POWERFUL PUNDITORY PANJANDRUMS: Compelling guest commentary
Nevada Press Assn. annual award winners announced.
HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years in a row.The winning entries:
Suing for Schools: The 20-year shuck
Expanded from the 2-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune
Click here to view the show on your desktopRED flags flying low over Sparks
Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks TribuneThe wrath of self-righteous racism
Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune...and more ammo...
Economist: This is a true depression
Elliott Parker Guest Editorial / Las Vegas Sun / 11-27-2011POWERFUL PUNDITORY PANJANDRUMS: Compelling guest commentary
Nevada Press Assn. annual award winners announced.
HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years in a row.The winning entries:
Suing for Schools: The 20-year shuck
Expanded from the 2-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune
Click here to view the show on your desktopRED flags flying low over Sparks
Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks TribuneThe wrath of self-righteous racism
Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune
And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?
The Dean's List
The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites.
RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006
The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners
Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL
Barbwire / 11-30-2008
Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry
Barbwire / 8-3-2008
Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here?
Barbwire / 6-15-2008
The price of a piece / 6-17-2007
Boxing Pandora /9-23-2007
The Lady in the Red Dress
10-28-2007
The plight of the paper pushers
The great recession made bashing public workers a national sport
Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review / 11-23-2011Bury the Bad News with Rose-colored Reporting
How urgent can economic troubles be if leaders say things are getting better?
Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review / 11-23-2011Fact-free nation: Inside the lie machine
Mother Jones Magazine May-June 2011 / Cover story and in-depth analysis
Bill Moyers: Welcome to the Plutocracy
Money fights hard and it fights dirty
Speech delivered at Boston University on 29 Oct. 2010
Part of the Howard Zinn Lecture SeriesBarbwire Corporate Welfare Archive
Cabellyup.com
TOLJASO LONG TIME AGO
BP/ARCO: The greasy root of our evils
Barbwire / Daily Sparks Tribune 9-10-2006
The awful truth — Read it and weep, fellow suckersLabor Day 2009: Rise of the Vampire Corpobots
Expanded from the 9-6-2009 Daily Sparks TribuneAngry Americans and Freudian fraud
Using war to market cigarettes
Expanded from the 8-23-2009 Daily Sparks TribuneBARBWIRE Nevada Corporate Welfare Archive
Propaganda fuels gasoline price fixing
Barbwire 8-14-2005Donate to the cable ratepayer legal defense fund at our PayPal-enabled ReSurge.TV Consumer War Room
Phillips, Kevin; Numbers Racket: Why the economy is worse than we know
Harper's Magazine; May 2008; page 43
Phillips has authored numerous books on history and politics over the past 40 years. His most recent, Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism, was published by Viking on April 15, 2008.NAOMI WOLF: Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps
There are some things common to every state that's made the transition to fascism. Author Naomi Wolf argues that all of them are present in America today.
Alternet 5-20-2007Johnson, Chalmers; REPUBLIC OR EMPIRE? A National Intelligence Estimate on the United States; Harper's magazine; January, 2007. I love it when heavy hitters validate what I've been saying for years in the tiny Sparks Tribune.
Barlett, Donald L. and Steele, James B.; America: What Went Wrong? (1992); America: Who Really Pays the Taxes? (1994); America: Who Stole the Dream? (1996) ; Andrews & McMeel/Universal Press Syndicate.
Review of Alex Carey's Taking the Risk Out of Democracy:
Propaganda in the US and AustraliaThe Orwell Diversion by Alex Carey
Excerpted from the book available below
ORDER Taking the Risk Out of Democracy
Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty
By Alex Carey
Edited by Andrew Lohrey
Foreword by Noam Chomsky
University of Illinois Press
SEE ALSO: Lapham, Lewis H.; Tentacles of Rage: The Republican Propaganda Mill, A Brief History; Harper's Magazine cover article; September, 2004, page 32.
By one conservative estimate, the corporate right has spent about $3 billion over the past three decades manufacturing public opinion to suit big business goals. Lapham's number covered the early 1970's to the present day. Alex Carey noted that by 1948, anti- New Deal corporate propaganda expenditures had already reached $100 million per year, not adjusted for inflation, for advertising alone. (Carey, ibid; page 79)
Adjusted for inflation, that 1948 $100 million becomes $801,659,751.04 in 2005 dollars.
Conservatives Help Wal-Mart, and Vice Versa
As Wal-Mart struggles to rebut growing criticism, it has discovered a reliable ally: conservative research groups.
New York Times 9-8-2006; Free registration may be required.BARBWIRE: Labor Day '94: People vs. corporate con job, 9-4-94
Chilling forecasts from Alex CareyBARBWIRE: The Nevada Republican Party Becomes Communist, 3-30-97
A prescient Plato on the dangers of oligarchyThe sands of time do not cloud the long memories of the sheiks of Araby
Barbwire 9-10-2006
Rinfret, Pierre A.; Peace is Bullish; Look magazine, 5-31-1966
Copyright © 1982-2012
Andrew Barbano
Andrew Barbano is a 43-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee, He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.
Barbwire by Barbano premiered in the Daily Sparks (Nev.) Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in those parts ever since. Tempus fugit.
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