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Taleban
Leaving Last Stronghold in the South - Kandahar
Sea Hawk
helicopter flying above
the USS Roosevelt, 11/16/01
Excerpt
from article describing the Taleban's departure from Kandahar,
the reported death of Mohammed Atef - 2nd in command in al Qaeda,
and other pertinent items of interest on the war front:
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Reports
from Afghanistan suggest the Taleban are withdrawing from their
last strongholds in the south of the country.
Anti-Taleban
Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai told the BBC his forces had
taken over in the central Uruzgan province and that convoys
of Taleban were also leaving their main power base, Kandahar.
...
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld all but confirmed reports
that American air strikes near the capital Kabul had killed
Mohammed Atef, a key deputy of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.
(click for video on Atef death,
Kandahar bombing, Rumsfeld,
special forces, 11/16/01)
Atef
was regarded as one of the key planners behind the 11 September
attacks on New York and Washington. ...
the BBC's Adam Brookes says that if the reports are true they
would mean the end of the Taleban's pretentions to power in
Afghanistan.
The
Taleban may be preparing to melt back into the general population,
he says, after coming under intense pressure to give up Kandahar.
As well as being subjected to protracted and vicious US air
strikes in recent days, the Taleban are threatened from the
west by Herat-based Northern Alliance commander Ismail Khan,
who said he would march on the city. Also, three tribal groups
in the area claim to have been negotiating with the Taleban
to hand over power. ...
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Source:
National
ID System?
Excerpts
from article describing the flaws regarding a national ID system
currently under consideration:
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National
ID Cards: 5 Reasons Why They Should Be Rejected ...
- It
would
not solve the problem that is inspiring it.
...
- It
will lead to a slippery slope of surveillance and monitoring
of citizens.
...
- It
would require creation of a database of all Americans.
...
- It
would function as “internal passports” that monitor
citizens’ movements.
...
- It
would foster new forms of discrimination and harassment.
...
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Source:
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Choosing
to Deconvert
In
America, many freely choose to deconvert from religious faith
/ belief in god.
On
the other hand, many find ways to maintain a somewhat schizophrenic
approach to religion / life, with one aspect of being leveraged
off of religious faith for convenience and other reasons, and
a second aspect of being leveraged off of logic and reason and
open-minded search for answers in a manner that respects doubt
and naturalism and never closes the door on exploration of existential
evidence for the actual nature of being.
The facts remain, to the core of the problem of religious faith
that persists in plaguing humankind, or, to put it in a kinder
light, the persistence of religious faith that humankind seems
as of yet either unable or unwilling to shed ...
... The evidence regarding the nonexistence of the myths of
the ancients and the real life reasons they concocted said myths,
in cultures across the globe, is clear. ...
... The evidence regarding the sole influence of naturalistic
forces at play in our world is so overwhelming that many of
religious faith choose to criticize the edges of science and
treat
the perceived miraculous intervention of their magic beings
/ supernatural forces as somehow being *the* explanation for
all unknowns, suspending doubt or discouraging doubt towards
that belief.
Also,
those of that particular ilk tend to treat naturalistic explanations
or the simple reply that "we just don't know, yet"
as either unacceptable or highly worthy of disdain as compared
to their suspension of doubt or discouragement of doubt regarding
magic beings / supernatural forces being the default response
to address unknowns.
Whether
it be an educated physicist of religious faith or a creationist-steeped
devout follower of god or an otherwise progressive liberal follower
of religious faith that flirts with non-faith to such an extent
that one is left bewildered as to why they cling to defense
of religious faith in a manner quite similar to the way in which
many pastors / mullahs dip into the well of myths and ignore
/ excuse / apologize for the evils present there,
<deep breath> the same suspension of doubt regarding some
super entity they like to call god (and associated faves from
supernatural-being land) is at play as the be-all end-all explanation
for unknowns.
Speaking of progressive liberal faith followers, some find traditional
"true believer" religious faith-following (also known
as "fundamentalism") so revolting, so antithetical
to modern concepts of promotion of humane values, that they
have divorced themselves from traditional "true believer"
status.
In
its place, some progressive liberal faith followers have chosen
to walk a line of rejection of "old" faith and creation
of "new" faith (in a manner that, as Bishop John Spong
has put it, religion must change or die), as if they can somehow
invent a newer, nicer, kinder "god" that's good and
decent out of the pile of myths / deceit / calls for suspension
of doubt that reside as the insoluble core problem of the ancient
concept known as religious faith.
What said progressive liberal faith-followers
fail to realize is that there is no way to flirt with suspension
of doubt without promoting submission to authority and slavery
to same.
The path to anti-humanism often proceeds through the door of
deception / god-fear disguised as good intentions (as evidenced
by the manner in which Afghans welcomed Taliban rule, at first,
because the Taliban reduced civil unrest and promised that religious
faith would increase in esteem, a concept those vulnerable to
calls to submit to god are extremely manipulatable by).
Once you've crossed that line of suspension of doubt, you are
naught but moist clay in the hands of the potter, and all who
are intimately familiar with history know the danger inherent
therein, in all calls for suspension of doubt
and/or "believe or else".
Our only salvation from slavery is our earnest effort to doubt
and skeptically address that which we are seduced / threatened
/ demanded to do by our leaders and by religious faith promoters,
and as is often the case these days, our leaders are also religious
faith promoters.
Source:
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