http://ww4report.com/node/5253
New York sex workers speak on Spitzer scandal
Submitted by WW4 Report on Fri, 03/14/2008 - 00:34.
WHAT ABOUT KRISTEN?
New York Sex Worker Organizations Respond to Spitzer Scandal
New York, NY - In the last few days, Governor Eliot Spitzer has publicly admitted to being associated with an escort agency and is considering resignation. As sex worker advocates, we are concerned about the representation and fate of "Kristen" and sex workers who are being thrust into the spotlight because of the investigation into the Governor. We also share the widespread concern for Governor Spitzer's family.
Sex worker organizations urge the press and the public to focus on the violation of sex workers rights and the need to change these laws and policies, rather than simply on the story of one individual who has purchased sexual services.
"Nobody is talking about the impact of this story on 'Kristen' and other women, men and trans people who are currently working in the sex industry," Shakti Ziller of SWANK in NYC added, "Prostitutes disproportionately face punitive action after arrest as compared to clients. Whether or not she will face prison time, 'Kristen' has been dragged into the spotlight and will be subjected to public humiliation. Shouldn't the police emphasis be on catching perpetrators of violent crime and protecting sex workers - not exposing adults who are consenting to a transaction? All she did was try to make a living."
"Governor Spitzer ran on a platform of being a different kind of politician and then portrayed an inaccurate image of himself. Being involved with the services of sex workers is a very common thing, if all forms of consensual sex work were decriminalized for adults involved in a consensual transaction, sex workers could access the services they need," says Dylan Wolfe of SWANK (Sex Workers Action New York).
Governor Spitzer took a lead role in developing the NY State Anti-Trafficking Law. Over the objections of advocates who worked directly with victims of human trafficking and with sex workers, Governor Spitzer pushed through penalty enhancements against clients of all sex workers. Sex worker advocates fought against such provisions because these policies drive people who need help further underground.
"Spitzer has stood up for workers' rights in certain capacities, but has not followed through with meeting the real needs of sex workers," Audacia Ray, author of Naked on the Internet, noted, "It would be great if the government could use money towards services, not punitive measures."
The press has picked up on the relationship that inter-state trafficking laws (under the Mann Act) have to this case. This connection illustrates a point that sex worker advocates have been making for a long time: Laws against inter-state transportation for the purposes of commercial sex are too often used for punishing people working as sex workers and those who work with and patronize them.
The exposure of Randall Tobias last year as a customer of an escort agency, Senator Vitter's rumored association with sex workers and now this recent news of Governor Spitzer, the corruption and hypocrisy inherently associated with prohibiting consensual prostitution are again being brought to light. Shaming these men will do nothing to improve the nature of the sex industry and the deeply-rooted corruption that is associated with the prohibition of prostitution.
"The criminalization of prostitution breeds this type of hypocrisy and makes our politicians (and other public figures) vulnerable," says Carol Leigh of Sex Workers Outreach Project-USA. "This vulnerability exists until our society recognizes that consensual sexual behavior is private and these private acts should no longer be criminalized."
"Many of our clients are politicians, judges, lawyers and even police," Monica S., 26 of Brooklyn said. "It's odd that they spend so much effort putting us into jail, but then turn around and give us their money in exchange for sex. Why do they think they won't get caught breaking the laws that they make?"
The commentary on Dealbreaker.com, a Wall-Street news site, says about Wall-street's anti-Spitzer reaction to the "Client 9" story: "'There is a God' was the first thought on Wall Street. The next thought is, 'Please don't let it be revealed that I'm Lucky Number 7.'"
Shakti Ziller, Sex Workers Action New York (SWANK), swank@riseup.net 877-877-2004 x 2
Audacia Ray, 718.554.1714
Sarah Bleviss, Sex Workers Outreach Project NYC (SWOP-NYC), swop.nyc@gmail.com
Prostitutes of New York (PONY), pony@panix.com
Desiree Alliance, www.desireealliance.org
Via Infoshop, March 12
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"Hooker science" and the Spitzer scandal
Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Sun, 04/06/2008 - 05:53.
From Annalee Newitz's Techsploitation blog, via the San Francisco Bay Guardian, March 19:
Hooker Science
The outrage over former New York governor Eliot Spitzer hiring an A-list hooker makes me feel like throwing a gigantic, crippling pile of superheavy biology and economics books at everyone in the United States and possibly the world. Are we still so Victorian in our thinking that we think it's bad for somebody to pay large amounts of money for a few hours of skin-time with a professional? Have we not learned enough at this point about psychology and neuroscience to understand that a roll in the sheets is just a fun, chemical fizz for our brains and that it means nothing about ethics and morality?
The sad fact is that we have learned all that stuff, and yet most people still believe paying money for sex is the equivalent of killing babies on the moral report card. And yet nobody bothers to ask why, or to investigate past the sensational headlines. As far as I'm concerned, the one unethical thing Spitzer did was to hire a sex worker after prosecuting several prostitution rings.
That's hypocritical of him, and undermines my faith in him as a politician.
But let's say Spitzer hadn't prosecuted so-called sex crimes before, and all he was doing was hiring a lady for some sex. Here is what I don't get: why is this bad? On the scale of things politicians can do - from sending huge numbers of young people to be killed in other countries to cutting programs aimed at helping foster kids get lunch money - hiring a sex worker is peanuts. It's a personal choice! It's not like Spitzer was issuing a statewide policy of mandatory hookers for everybody.
What really boggles the mind is the way so-called liberal media like National Public Radio and the New York Times have been attacking Spitzer's morals as much as the conservative Fox News types have. In some cases, they've attacked him more. The reasons given are always the same: sex work is abusive to women (male prostitutes don't exist?), and being paid for sex is inherently degrading.
Let's look inside one of those heavy economics books that I just beat you with and examine these assumptions for a minute, OK? Every possible kind of human act has been commodified and turned into a job under capitalism. That means people are legally paid to clean up one another's poop, paid to wash one another's naked bodies, paid to fry food all day, paid to work in toxic mines, paid to clean toilets, paid to wash and dress dead naked bodies, and paid to clean the brains off walls in crime scenes. My point is, you can earn money doing every possible degrading or disgusting thing on earth.
And yet, most people don't think it's immoral to wipe somebody else's bum or to fry food all day, even though both jobs could truthfully be described as inherently degrading. They say, "Gee that's a tough job." And then they pay the people who do those jobs minimum wage.
The sex worker Spitzer visited, on the other hand, was paid handsomely for her tough job. The New York Times, in its mission to invade this woman's privacy (though in what one must suppose is a nonexploitative way), reported that she was a midrange worker at her agency who pulled in between $1000-$2000 per job. She wasn't working for minimum wage; she wasn't forced to inhale toxic fumes that would destroy her chances of having a nonmutant baby. She was being paid a middle-class salary to have sex. Sure, it might be an icky job, in the same way cleaning up barf in a hospital can be icky. But was she being economically exploited? Probably a hell of a lot less than the janitor in the hospital mopping up vomit cleaning up after you.
Sure, there are hookers who are exploited and who have miserable lives. There are people who are exploited and miserable in a lot of jobs. But the misery is circumstantial: not all hookers are exploited, just as not all hospital workers are exploited. It's basic labor economics, people.
Audacia Ray, former sex worker and editor of the sex worker magazine $pread, has pointed out that the public doesn't even seem to understand what exploitation really means. The woman who did sex work for Spitzer has had her picture and personal history splattered all over the media in an incredibly insulting way. Nobody seems to realize she's being degraded far more now than she ever was when Spitzer was her client. And she's not getting any retirement savings out of it, either.
Annalee Newitz is a surly media nerd who once hired a prostitute for a few hundred bucks and had a pretty good time.
»
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Senate Cult Bill
http://iviewit.tv/senatecultbill.htm
IVIEWIT
TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Home | ABOUT | COMPANY | FINANCIAL INFO | INVENTORS | PRESS | PRESS ROOM | PRODUCTS | SUPREME COURT | VIDEO GALLERY | IMAGE GALLERY | SENATE CULT BILL
P. Stephen Lamont
Former Chief Executive Officer (Acting)
&
Eliot I. Bernstein
Founder and Inventor
By Facsimile & Email
October 17, 2007
The Honorable Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
476 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-3204
Re: Senate Cult Bill for Your Consideration
Dear Honorable Senator Clinton:
By way of introduction, I am P. Stephen Lamont, former Chief Executive Officer (Acting) of Iviewit Holdings, Inc., and its subsidiaries, affiliates, and related parties (counsel advised all Iviewit executives to resign their posts and work along side Iviewit rather than within Iviewit), as well as a significant shareholder in Iviewit, with more than a fifteen year track record as a multimedia technology and consumer electronics licensing executive and holder of a J.D. in Intellectual Property Law, an M.B.A in Finance, and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering, and I write to you with Eliot I. Bernstein, the Founder of Iviewit, who was factually present throughout all of the events described at the URL www.iviewit.tv and has so contributed to assure the veracity of the statements herein and provide credible witness to the events described prior to my joining Iviewit; Mr. Bernstein is the principal inventor of the technologies in question.
Moreover, I appallingly write at the cross current, by and between parties described at the URL at www.iviewit.tv and their pattern of frauds, deceits, and misrepresentations that run so wide and so deep that it tears at the very fabric of what has become to be know as free commerce in this country, and, in the fact that it pertains to inventors rights, tears at the very fabric of the Constitution of the United States.
Furthermore, upon information and belief, such disingenuous schemes were assisted by, whether directly or indirectly, members of secret societies that have infiltrated the United States government and other positions of influence to advance their own personal and organizational interests, all to the detriment of Iviewit, the United States government, and the people who they have been elected to serve.
Accordingly, and as former Chief Executive Officer (Acting) of Iviewit, and together with Mr. Bernstein, we submit the following bill pertaining to Oaths and Affirmations that would prevent such insidious individuals from holding elected or appointed offices so that others similarly situated to Iviewit may freely avail themselves of the free market economy and system of jurisprudence the Founding Fathers sought to provide.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Very truly yours,
IVIEWIT HOLDINGS, INC.
IVIEWIT TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
By:
IVIEWIT
TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Home | ABOUT | COMPANY | FINANCIAL INFO | INVENTORS | PRESS | PRESS ROOM | PRODUCTS | SUPREME COURT | VIDEO GALLERY | IMAGE GALLERY | SENATE CULT BILL
P. Stephen Lamont
Former Chief Executive Officer (Acting)
&
Eliot I. Bernstein
Founder and Inventor
By Facsimile & Email
October 17, 2007
The Honorable Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
476 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-3204
Re: Senate Cult Bill for Your Consideration
Dear Honorable Senator Clinton:
By way of introduction, I am P. Stephen Lamont, former Chief Executive Officer (Acting) of Iviewit Holdings, Inc., and its subsidiaries, affiliates, and related parties (counsel advised all Iviewit executives to resign their posts and work along side Iviewit rather than within Iviewit), as well as a significant shareholder in Iviewit, with more than a fifteen year track record as a multimedia technology and consumer electronics licensing executive and holder of a J.D. in Intellectual Property Law, an M.B.A in Finance, and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering, and I write to you with Eliot I. Bernstein, the Founder of Iviewit, who was factually present throughout all of the events described at the URL www.iviewit.tv and has so contributed to assure the veracity of the statements herein and provide credible witness to the events described prior to my joining Iviewit; Mr. Bernstein is the principal inventor of the technologies in question.
Moreover, I appallingly write at the cross current, by and between parties described at the URL at www.iviewit.tv and their pattern of frauds, deceits, and misrepresentations that run so wide and so deep that it tears at the very fabric of what has become to be know as free commerce in this country, and, in the fact that it pertains to inventors rights, tears at the very fabric of the Constitution of the United States.
Furthermore, upon information and belief, such disingenuous schemes were assisted by, whether directly or indirectly, members of secret societies that have infiltrated the United States government and other positions of influence to advance their own personal and organizational interests, all to the detriment of Iviewit, the United States government, and the people who they have been elected to serve.
Accordingly, and as former Chief Executive Officer (Acting) of Iviewit, and together with Mr. Bernstein, we submit the following bill pertaining to Oaths and Affirmations that would prevent such insidious individuals from holding elected or appointed offices so that others similarly situated to Iviewit may freely avail themselves of the free market economy and system of jurisprudence the Founding Fathers sought to provide.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Very truly yours,
IVIEWIT HOLDINGS, INC.
IVIEWIT TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
By:
Friday, February 6, 2009
Links Corporate Medicine Web site
http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/health/nme_founders.html
LINKS CORPORATE MEDICINE WEB SITE Background
The many extracts on these pages are from copyright material. They are owned by the reference given or its owner. They are reproduced here for educational purposes and to stimulate public debate about the provision of health and aged care. I consider this to be "fair use" in the common interest. They should not be reproduced for commercial purposes. Every attempt is made to provide accurate and well written material. Your contributions, suggestions, additional information and advice sent to the web address at the foot of the page are welcome. Where possible they will be included in revised pages.The intention is to show the general thrust of corporate practices as well as the nature and extent of any allegations made. Material contained here represents my views based on my study of the operation of the health care marketplace and the material available to me. It should not be assumed to represent the views of any other individual or organization.
LINKS CORPORATE MEDICINE WEB SITE Background
The many extracts on these pages are from copyright material. They are owned by the reference given or its owner. They are reproduced here for educational purposes and to stimulate public debate about the provision of health and aged care. I consider this to be "fair use" in the common interest. They should not be reproduced for commercial purposes. Every attempt is made to provide accurate and well written material. Your contributions, suggestions, additional information and advice sent to the web address at the foot of the page are welcome. Where possible they will be included in revised pages.The intention is to show the general thrust of corporate practices as well as the nature and extent of any allegations made. Material contained here represents my views based on my study of the operation of the health care marketplace and the material available to me. It should not be assumed to represent the views of any other individual or organization.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Word of God...... This is Good!!!
_Word of God_
(http://www.bertha- dudde.info/ english/wordofgo d/07_html/ en_8000.html)
UNITY OF ECCLESIASTICAL DENOMINATIONS? .…
There is no chance that the ecclesiastical denominations will agree with each other because they hold on to their spoiled teachings and do not try to distance themselves from them….
They all concentrate on external practices, they represent a Christianity which does not correspond to what Jesus describes as the church founded by Him…
. Because this church is a spiritual union, its members exemplify a living Christianity which transforms a person from within, it cannot be compared with the Christianity advocated by the churches…. which mainly follows external customs, has adopted countless practices and ceremonies and thus attaches more
importance to those while neglecting the inner change of the human being’s nature into love….
As a result it can never achieve the right relationship with God, the spiritual rebirth, which, however, is the essence of the church founded on earth by Jesus Himself. None of the denominations will relinquish their traditions, not one of them will, for the sake of another, renounce anything even though it is a mere human product and has no value before God.
The denominations’ argument concerns those differences which were created by them in the course of time, but no thought is given to the actual misguided spiritual knowledge which had caused the confusion in the first place and which is eagerly defended as the original religion. This, however, can only be found in the truth taught by Jesus Himself on earth which has also been
distorted by now and is no longer supported by any of the existing denominations, nor can it be supported because it needs the working of the spirit, which can only be attained by fulfilling the divine commandments of love. And particularly this commandment is in fact taught but observed least of all, because all later added man-made commandments are paid more attention, although they are
of no value since they did not originate from God but are mere human work…. thus they cannot last and have no influence on the further development of the human soul which has to mature here on earth.
The divine Word of Jesus on earth which gave mankind the full truth has been interpreted so incorrectly that these interpretations have resulted in many wrong customs.
Here God's adversary has played his part by confusing the spirit of men, which became noticeable in the demands of these various denominations, which always separated when people argued over the spiritual meaning of Jesus’ Words.
And each denomination supported such controversial issues according to the degree of their understanding or the spiritual state of those who believed themselves to have a calling but who did not belong to the church of Christ themselves, or their spirit would have been enlightened and they would have dissociated themselves from the existing creeds or schools of thought. Some eager
representatives whose maturity of soul was already further advanced certainly did fight for the knowledge they had gained. But they could never prevail because their opponents were not willing to relinquish a structure which only consisted of misguided human practices, which never correspond to divine will
because they did not concur with the pure truth…. And even if the denominations intend to unify, they will still not give up
these human institutions and endeavour to build the true church of Christ which expects of people an inner life in accordance with divine will not reliant upon any external practices, but solely upon a life of love. This will establish a connection with God and result in living faith as well as a full understanding of the pure truth which is gained through the working of the spirit
within the human being and which is the sole characteristic of the church which Jesus Christ established on earth.
And as long as people do not abandon the formalities through which they deter many people’s faith altogether, as long as they do not want to experience the inner awakening themselves, which results in the working of the spirit and enlightenment of thought, it will be a pointless beginning to achieve an agreement, for then they do not agree in truth but hold on to the misguided spiritual knowledge which, however, will be of no benefit for their souls…. Amen
BD 8212
Yes, you do have permission to send this message to family, friends and other spiritual needy. "... freely ye have received, freely give."
There is no copyright but make sure not to cut off or add or change any word!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
(http://www.bertha- dudde.info/ english/wordofgo d/07_html/ en_8000.html)
UNITY OF ECCLESIASTICAL DENOMINATIONS? .…
There is no chance that the ecclesiastical denominations will agree with each other because they hold on to their spoiled teachings and do not try to distance themselves from them….
They all concentrate on external practices, they represent a Christianity which does not correspond to what Jesus describes as the church founded by Him…
. Because this church is a spiritual union, its members exemplify a living Christianity which transforms a person from within, it cannot be compared with the Christianity advocated by the churches…. which mainly follows external customs, has adopted countless practices and ceremonies and thus attaches more
importance to those while neglecting the inner change of the human being’s nature into love….
As a result it can never achieve the right relationship with God, the spiritual rebirth, which, however, is the essence of the church founded on earth by Jesus Himself. None of the denominations will relinquish their traditions, not one of them will, for the sake of another, renounce anything even though it is a mere human product and has no value before God.
The denominations’ argument concerns those differences which were created by them in the course of time, but no thought is given to the actual misguided spiritual knowledge which had caused the confusion in the first place and which is eagerly defended as the original religion. This, however, can only be found in the truth taught by Jesus Himself on earth which has also been
distorted by now and is no longer supported by any of the existing denominations, nor can it be supported because it needs the working of the spirit, which can only be attained by fulfilling the divine commandments of love. And particularly this commandment is in fact taught but observed least of all, because all later added man-made commandments are paid more attention, although they are
of no value since they did not originate from God but are mere human work…. thus they cannot last and have no influence on the further development of the human soul which has to mature here on earth.
The divine Word of Jesus on earth which gave mankind the full truth has been interpreted so incorrectly that these interpretations have resulted in many wrong customs.
Here God's adversary has played his part by confusing the spirit of men, which became noticeable in the demands of these various denominations, which always separated when people argued over the spiritual meaning of Jesus’ Words.
And each denomination supported such controversial issues according to the degree of their understanding or the spiritual state of those who believed themselves to have a calling but who did not belong to the church of Christ themselves, or their spirit would have been enlightened and they would have dissociated themselves from the existing creeds or schools of thought. Some eager
representatives whose maturity of soul was already further advanced certainly did fight for the knowledge they had gained. But they could never prevail because their opponents were not willing to relinquish a structure which only consisted of misguided human practices, which never correspond to divine will
because they did not concur with the pure truth…. And even if the denominations intend to unify, they will still not give up
these human institutions and endeavour to build the true church of Christ which expects of people an inner life in accordance with divine will not reliant upon any external practices, but solely upon a life of love. This will establish a connection with God and result in living faith as well as a full understanding of the pure truth which is gained through the working of the spirit
within the human being and which is the sole characteristic of the church which Jesus Christ established on earth.
And as long as people do not abandon the formalities through which they deter many people’s faith altogether, as long as they do not want to experience the inner awakening themselves, which results in the working of the spirit and enlightenment of thought, it will be a pointless beginning to achieve an agreement, for then they do not agree in truth but hold on to the misguided spiritual knowledge which, however, will be of no benefit for their souls…. Amen
BD 8212
Yes, you do have permission to send this message to family, friends and other spiritual needy. "... freely ye have received, freely give."
There is no copyright but make sure not to cut off or add or change any word!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Monday, February 2, 2009
Pat Tillman had been urged to Seek Discharge
Pat Tillman had Been Urged to Seek Discharge
Four months before he was killed in Afghanistan, Pat Tillman was told that he could opt out of extending his military service because NFL clubs were interested in him.
PHOENIX (AP) - Four months before he was killed in Afghanistan, Pat Tillman was told that he could opt out of extending his military service because NFL clubs were interested in him. Tillman chose to stay in the Army Rangers, and on April 22, 2004, he was shot by a fellow U.S. soldier who mistakenly fired on a friendly Afghan soldier in Tillman's unit. Other U.S. soldiers then fired in the same direction. Tillman had an exceptional college football career and was a starter for the Arizona Cardinals. But he was largely unkown outside Arizona until he walked away from a $1.2 million-a-year contract to join the Army after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In December 2003, when Tillman was back home from his initial tour overseas, in Iraq, his agent had begun fielding calls from teams suddenly interested in acquiring his client for the 2004 season. 'And they all said the same thing: 'Frank, this kid can get out of it. He's already served in a war. Just file his discharge papers,'' the agent, Frank Bauer, told The Arizona Republic. He urged Tillman to consider seeking a discharge. 'He said 'No, I'm going to stay. I owe them three years. I'll do one more tour,'' Bauer said. 'And that's the last I ever heard from Pat.' Tillman's decision 'may be remarkable to everybody else,' said brother-in-law Alex Garwood, director of the Pat Tillman Foundation. 'But not if you knew Pat.' The Defense Department has completed an investigation into Tillman's death that was aimed at concerns raised about whether the Army held back information, but its findings won't be made public, Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, an Army spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said this past week. Tillman's family got a briefing on the inquiry recently, said Lt. Col. Hans Bush, chief of public affairs for the Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C. Associated Press
Four months before he was killed in Afghanistan, Pat Tillman was told that he could opt out of extending his military service because NFL clubs were interested in him.
PHOENIX (AP) - Four months before he was killed in Afghanistan, Pat Tillman was told that he could opt out of extending his military service because NFL clubs were interested in him. Tillman chose to stay in the Army Rangers, and on April 22, 2004, he was shot by a fellow U.S. soldier who mistakenly fired on a friendly Afghan soldier in Tillman's unit. Other U.S. soldiers then fired in the same direction. Tillman had an exceptional college football career and was a starter for the Arizona Cardinals. But he was largely unkown outside Arizona until he walked away from a $1.2 million-a-year contract to join the Army after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In December 2003, when Tillman was back home from his initial tour overseas, in Iraq, his agent had begun fielding calls from teams suddenly interested in acquiring his client for the 2004 season. 'And they all said the same thing: 'Frank, this kid can get out of it. He's already served in a war. Just file his discharge papers,'' the agent, Frank Bauer, told The Arizona Republic. He urged Tillman to consider seeking a discharge. 'He said 'No, I'm going to stay. I owe them three years. I'll do one more tour,'' Bauer said. 'And that's the last I ever heard from Pat.' Tillman's decision 'may be remarkable to everybody else,' said brother-in-law Alex Garwood, director of the Pat Tillman Foundation. 'But not if you knew Pat.' The Defense Department has completed an investigation into Tillman's death that was aimed at concerns raised about whether the Army held back information, but its findings won't be made public, Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, an Army spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said this past week. Tillman's family got a briefing on the inquiry recently, said Lt. Col. Hans Bush, chief of public affairs for the Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C. Associated Press
Rosie Speaks to Donald Trump/Elitest
ROSIE O'DONNELL Elisabeth Hasselbeck Cat Fight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYPjpvbcxFU&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYPjpvbcxFU&NR=1
Rogers Communications owns Toronto Blue Jays
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Communications
2000s
Rogers Communications Inc. acquired the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Club in 2000 and several years later, in 2004, acquired Skydome which is the Blue Jays home venue and largest covered indoor entertainment complex in Canada. The complex was renamed Rogers Centre in February 2005.
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS19050+08-Feb-2008+PRN20080208
Prime Minister Stephen Harper fails to take action on CRTC cable scandal - Canadian...
Thu Feb 7, 2008 8:21pm EST
Email | Print |
Share
| Reprints | Single Page
[-] Text [+] Prime Minister Stephen Harper fails to take action on CRTC cable scandal -
Canadian consumers may be owed more than 1.2 billion dollars
OTTAWA, Feb. 7 /PRNewswire/ - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was
notified more than two years ago of questionable activities amongst industry
and government officials and has not taken action on this issue. At stake is
more than $C 1.2 billion in fees collected from millions of Canadian consumers
under a misleading pretence. A submission made by Canadian citizen Keith
Mahar's legal counsel has not been addressed by the prime minister. At issue
are actions taken by officials at the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) that have unjustly enriched cable
corporations for more than a decade. An extensive breakdown of these actions
is found on www.mediascam.com.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ontario
Securities Commission (OSC) have been requested to investigate potential
violations of New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX)
listing standards on corporate governance by Rogers Communications and Shaw
Communications. The request has been made by legal counsel for Mr. Mahar, a
Rogers and Shaw shareholder who is a social worker, precedent-setting public
interest litigant (Mahar v. Rogers Cablesystems Ltd. 1995), and former
corporate insider in the Canadian broadcasting industry.
"Prime Minister Harper introduced the Federal Accountability Act but
apparently media companies and the CRTC are exempt from accountability and
above the law," stated Mr. Mahar.
As posted on www.mediascam.com, documents were made available to the SEC
and OSC that demonstrate that the corporations may have breached Canadian law.
The OSC has also been asked by Mr. Mahar to review the activities of Cogeco
and Quebecor.
"Citizens and journalists are invited to review the documents on
Mediascam.com and judge for themselves whether or not Prime Minister Harper's
decision to ignore this matter has been in the public interest", Mr. Mahar
added.
This afternoon Mr. Mahar appeared at the CRTC public hearing on the
Canadian Television Fund (CTF), a program operated as a partnership between
industry and government which is central to the activities in question. He
noted that the federal agency had destroyed documents related to the issue and
urged Commissioners to formally review the outstanding issue.
SOURCE Mediascam.com
Keith Mahar, (613) 236-5000 (until Friday, 8 February 2008),
info@mediascam.com, www.mediascam.com; Mailing address: P.O. Box 108, Mawson
ACT 2607, Australia
2000s
Rogers Communications Inc. acquired the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Club in 2000 and several years later, in 2004, acquired Skydome which is the Blue Jays home venue and largest covered indoor entertainment complex in Canada. The complex was renamed Rogers Centre in February 2005.
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS19050+08-Feb-2008+PRN20080208
Prime Minister Stephen Harper fails to take action on CRTC cable scandal - Canadian...
Thu Feb 7, 2008 8:21pm EST
Email | Print |
Share
| Reprints | Single Page
[-] Text [+] Prime Minister Stephen Harper fails to take action on CRTC cable scandal -
Canadian consumers may be owed more than 1.2 billion dollars
OTTAWA, Feb. 7 /PRNewswire/ - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was
notified more than two years ago of questionable activities amongst industry
and government officials and has not taken action on this issue. At stake is
more than $C 1.2 billion in fees collected from millions of Canadian consumers
under a misleading pretence. A submission made by Canadian citizen Keith
Mahar's legal counsel has not been addressed by the prime minister. At issue
are actions taken by officials at the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) that have unjustly enriched cable
corporations for more than a decade. An extensive breakdown of these actions
is found on www.mediascam.com.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ontario
Securities Commission (OSC) have been requested to investigate potential
violations of New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX)
listing standards on corporate governance by Rogers Communications and Shaw
Communications. The request has been made by legal counsel for Mr. Mahar, a
Rogers and Shaw shareholder who is a social worker, precedent-setting public
interest litigant (Mahar v. Rogers Cablesystems Ltd. 1995), and former
corporate insider in the Canadian broadcasting industry.
"Prime Minister Harper introduced the Federal Accountability Act but
apparently media companies and the CRTC are exempt from accountability and
above the law," stated Mr. Mahar.
As posted on www.mediascam.com, documents were made available to the SEC
and OSC that demonstrate that the corporations may have breached Canadian law.
The OSC has also been asked by Mr. Mahar to review the activities of Cogeco
and Quebecor.
"Citizens and journalists are invited to review the documents on
Mediascam.com and judge for themselves whether or not Prime Minister Harper's
decision to ignore this matter has been in the public interest", Mr. Mahar
added.
This afternoon Mr. Mahar appeared at the CRTC public hearing on the
Canadian Television Fund (CTF), a program operated as a partnership between
industry and government which is central to the activities in question. He
noted that the federal agency had destroyed documents related to the issue and
urged Commissioners to formally review the outstanding issue.
SOURCE Mediascam.com
Keith Mahar, (613) 236-5000 (until Friday, 8 February 2008),
info@mediascam.com, www.mediascam.com; Mailing address: P.O. Box 108, Mawson
ACT 2607, Australia
Rogers
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS19050+08-Feb-2008+PRN20080208
Prime Minister Stephen Harper fails to take action on CRTC cable scandal - Canadian...
Thu Feb 7, 2008 8:21pm EST
Prime Minister Stephen Harper fails to take action on CRTC cable scandal -
Canadian consumers may be owed more than 1.2 billion dollars
OTTAWA, Feb. 7 /PRNewswire/ - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was
notified more than two years ago of questionable activities amongst industry
and government officials and has not taken action on this issue. At stake is
more than $C 1.2 billion in fees collected from millions of Canadian consumers
under a misleading pretence. A submission made by Canadian citizen Keith
Mahar's legal counsel has not been addressed by the prime minister. At issue
are actions taken by officials at the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) that have unjustly enriched cable
corporations for more than a decade. An extensive breakdown of these actions
is found on www.mediascam.com.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ontario
Securities Commission (OSC) have been requested to investigate potential
violations of New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX)
listing standards on corporate governance by Rogers Communications and Shaw
Communications. The request has been made by legal counsel for Mr. Mahar, a
Rogers and Shaw shareholder who is a social worker, precedent-setting public
interest litigant (Mahar v. Rogers Cablesystems Ltd. 1995), and former
corporate insider in the Canadian broadcasting industry.
"Prime Minister Harper introduced the Federal Accountability Act but
apparently media companies and the CRTC are exempt from accountability and
above the law," stated Mr. Mahar.
As posted on www.mediascam.com, documents were made available to the SEC
and OSC that demonstrate that the corporations may have breached Canadian law.
The OSC has also been asked by Mr. Mahar to review the activities of Cogeco
and Quebecor.
"Citizens and journalists are invited to review the documents on
Mediascam.com and judge for themselves whether or not Prime Minister Harper's
decision to ignore this matter has been in the public interest", Mr. Mahar
added.
This afternoon Mr. Mahar appeared at the CRTC public hearing on the
Canadian Television Fund (CTF), a program operated as a partnership between
industry and government which is central to the activities in question. He
noted that the federal agency had destroyed documents related to the issue and
urged Commissioners to formally review the outstanding issue.
SOURCE Mediascam.com
Keith Mahar, (613) 236-5000 (until Friday, 8 February 2008),
info@mediascam.com, www.mediascam.com; Mailing address: P.O. Box 108, Mawson
ACT 2607, Australia
Prime Minister Stephen Harper fails to take action on CRTC cable scandal - Canadian...
Thu Feb 7, 2008 8:21pm EST
Prime Minister Stephen Harper fails to take action on CRTC cable scandal -
Canadian consumers may be owed more than 1.2 billion dollars
OTTAWA, Feb. 7 /PRNewswire/ - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was
notified more than two years ago of questionable activities amongst industry
and government officials and has not taken action on this issue. At stake is
more than $C 1.2 billion in fees collected from millions of Canadian consumers
under a misleading pretence. A submission made by Canadian citizen Keith
Mahar's legal counsel has not been addressed by the prime minister. At issue
are actions taken by officials at the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) that have unjustly enriched cable
corporations for more than a decade. An extensive breakdown of these actions
is found on www.mediascam.com.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ontario
Securities Commission (OSC) have been requested to investigate potential
violations of New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX)
listing standards on corporate governance by Rogers Communications and Shaw
Communications. The request has been made by legal counsel for Mr. Mahar, a
Rogers and Shaw shareholder who is a social worker, precedent-setting public
interest litigant (Mahar v. Rogers Cablesystems Ltd. 1995), and former
corporate insider in the Canadian broadcasting industry.
"Prime Minister Harper introduced the Federal Accountability Act but
apparently media companies and the CRTC are exempt from accountability and
above the law," stated Mr. Mahar.
As posted on www.mediascam.com, documents were made available to the SEC
and OSC that demonstrate that the corporations may have breached Canadian law.
The OSC has also been asked by Mr. Mahar to review the activities of Cogeco
and Quebecor.
"Citizens and journalists are invited to review the documents on
Mediascam.com and judge for themselves whether or not Prime Minister Harper's
decision to ignore this matter has been in the public interest", Mr. Mahar
added.
This afternoon Mr. Mahar appeared at the CRTC public hearing on the
Canadian Television Fund (CTF), a program operated as a partnership between
industry and government which is central to the activities in question. He
noted that the federal agency had destroyed documents related to the issue and
urged Commissioners to formally review the outstanding issue.
SOURCE Mediascam.com
Keith Mahar, (613) 236-5000 (until Friday, 8 February 2008),
info@mediascam.com, www.mediascam.com; Mailing address: P.O. Box 108, Mawson
ACT 2607, Australia
Tim Hasselbeck/Fantasy Football is Gambling Time Bomb for Players
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/1997/Jul-25-Fri-1997/sports/5778474.html
Friday, July 25, 1997
Boston College continues to sort out mess from gambling scandal
Associated Press
NEWTON, Mass. -- Two Boston College players have been reinstated and three others were given additional suspensions by the NCAA for their parts in the biggest gambling scandal in college football history.
The school suspended 13 players for the final three games of the 1996 season after an investigation into gambling on the Eagles football team. One has since suffered a career-ending injury, four were allowed to complete their coursework and three had their scholarships revoked.
Of the remaining five, the school said, two players have had their eligibility reinstated, two are suspended for the first two games of the 1997 season and one will sit out the first four games.
The school did not identify which players received which punishment, and a spokesman declined further comment.
Football coach Dan Henning resigned at the end of the 1996 season, due mostly to his 16-19-1 record. Basketball coach Jim O'Brien also left the school after a falling out with the admissions office over the rejection of three recruits just days after the football scandal broke.
Last week, athletic director Chet Gladchuk left to take over the same position at Houston.
The 8,800-student school was at the center of a point-shaving scandal in 1982 when Rick Kuhn was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for his role in fixing six basketball games during the 1978-79 season.
Initial reports pointed to a similar problem this time. Rumors of point-shaving first surfaced after the Oct. 26 Syracuse game, in which the Orangemen trailed 14-7 before rallying for 17 points in the final 1:43 of the first half.
After a 20-13 loss to Pittsburgh several players were confronted by Henning and the team's student captains.
Thirteen players were eventually suspended by the school, the most players ever implicated in a gambling scandal. After a nine month investigation by Middlesex County District Attorney Tom Reilly, six men were indicted last week in connection with the gambling ring -- none of them current BC athletes.
-----
http://www.lostbet.com/news_fantasy.aspx
Fantasy Football is Gambling Time Bomb for Players
Giants backup quarterback Tim Hasselbeck remembers all too well the dark cloud that descended over the Boston College football program a decade ago. And it had nothing to do with the fickle New England weather.
"I was in the locker room with guys betting against our team. It's not pretty," says Hasselbeck, who with his older brother Matt, was a member of the 1996 Eagles squad enveloped in the biggest gambling scandal in college football history. "It's an ugly, ugly situation."
Thirteen Boston College players were suspended for gambling infractions including two players - Jamall Anderson and Marcus Bembry - who bet against BC in a lopsided loss to Syracuse that season. The Eagles finished 5-7, while the school suffered a year-long backlash of negative attention - everything from revelations of BC student bookies to ties with organized crime. "An ugly situation," Hasselbeck repeats.
But Hasselbeck has a different take on the fantasy football craze in America, where an estimated 15 to 20 million sports fans - including Colts linebacker Cato June and Redskins tight end Chris Cooley - get to act as faux general managers, create their own teams, draft and trade real players and try to accumulate the most points each week based upon different statistical categories. Participants scrutinize NFL game stats with the intensity of a pro football general manager.
When asked if players participating in fantasy leagues could lead to another gambling scandal like the one he experienced as a BC undergraduate, Hasselbeck smiles.
"I know a lot of (football players) do play. And a lot of these fantasy football leagues are based on points and not necessarily money," Hasselbeck says. "But I'm sure there are plenty of them that revolve around money, which is essentially gambling. Anybody that I know who plays is playing for fun. But there's some criticism of the dangerous, slippery slope that it could possibly lead down."
The NFL may already be heading down that precarious path. June and Cooley went on the record about their fantasy football passion, with June boasting about his fantasy "Juneimus D" team featuring starting QB Tom Brady. "Playing New England, I can't be happy with him throwing a TD pass, but in the back of my mind, I'm like, 'Yeah, I just got six points in my fantasy league,'" June told ESPN a couple of weeks ago.
If it sounds like the NFL and its new commissioner Roger Goodell should be alarmed at comparisons that may be drawn between fantasy football and illegal gambling, think again.
Not only is the league not preaching concern about its players' fantasy league participation, the NFL itself promotes fantasy leagues through its own Web site - an estimated 1.3 million fans play via NFL.com - complete with grand prizes and runner-up gifts for the winners.
"It is not gambling and it is ludicrous to suggest an NFL player would give his fantasy team a higher priority than his NFL job," says NFL spokesman Greg Aiello.
Goodell, who has been on the job just over three months, echoed Aiello's remarks in a recent interview with the Daily News.
"We've been talking about that a little bit," Goodell said when asked about NFL players, fantasy leagues and possible fears of gambling. "They're not wagering on them. They're paying a fee to participate. At this point, no, it doesn't concern me, but I think it's something we'll keep an eye on - that if any way it even leads to a perception that it should concern us, we will address it."
Las Vegas gambling experts, however, see fantasy leagues in the same vein as your everyday casino patron placing a bet at the blackjack table. It's gambling, pure and simple.
"I do have a problem when the league sees gambling as this terrible thing and then they say fantasy football is this wonderful thing," says Wayne Allyn Root, the chairman and CEO of Winning Edge International, a publicly traded sports handicapping Web site. "It's the same thing. You're betting money, you're gambling, wagering, investing on the performance of players and teams, not whether they win or lose.
"If I bet on the Redskins plus-3 or plus-8, then I'm not betting on them to win. I'm betting on them to cover the point spread and the league frowns upon that. But if I'm betting on a certain Redskins player to gain 100 yards today and that's my wish in the fantasy football league, it's the same thing. I don't care if the Redskins win. I'm cheering for that one player to get yards and whether the team wins or loses means nothing to me. There's no question in my mind it's a hypocritical stance on the part of the NFL."
Adds Ed Looney of New Jersey's Council on Compulsive Gambling: "Fantasy football is like an interlude, like a stepping stone to sports betting."
Jimmy Vaccaro, a Vegas veteran who has run sports rooms for several hot spots over the last few decades and now does public relations for American Wagering, a company that owns and operates over 50 race and sports wagering locations throughout Nevada, says flatly that there is no difference in playing fantasy football and laying down a bet.
"Fantasy football is gambling," Vaccaro says. "The IRS expects you to report the money you win, end of (f------) story. I'd like to see how many IRS 1029 forms are filled out when fantasy football winners pick up their cash winnings. ... Pete Rozelle is probably turning over in his grave."
Giants running back Tiki Barber doesn't see it that way.
"I don't see anything wrong with it because most people do it for fun," Barber says. "I'm sure some people would construe it as a form of gambling, but again, since most of the fantasy leagues are friends playing together I don't see why it's a big issue.
"Unless they're putting money on it. But I don't think that's happening."
The NFL is not alone in condoning fantasy football. Both Major League Baseball and the NBA say they have no issue with their athletes morphing into mock GMs and playing with fantasy sports teams.
"We have no problem with players participating," MLB spokesman Rich Levin says. "We're not concerned."
A Division I football coach who bet with friends in an NCAA basketball pool three years ago wasn't as lucky. Rick Neuheisel, then the University of Washington football coach, was fired for participating in the pool (the NCAA prohibits betting on illegal activity). Neuheisel later won a $4.5 million settlement in his lawsuit against the NCAA and the university, when it was revealed that a university compliance officer had E-mailed Neuheisel and permitted the coach to participate in the pool.
"I understand the reasoning behind (Neuheisel's dismissal)," says Tim Hasselbeck. "But, I mean, if you could really tell me that Rick Neuheisel being in an office pool with the NCAA basketball tournament - how that affects him coaching the Huskies... Really, let's be honest. Was anything wrong really going on there?"
At least the NFL and gambling experts seem to agree on one aspect of fantasy leagues: With teams providing up-to-date injury reports throughout the week, every week, there is little chance that fantasy league enthusiasts would be able to glean insider information ahead of someone else.
"Injuries don't mean a thing," says Vaccaro. "You're better off making one straight bet on that team for the weekend. There are 10 other players on that fantasy team that can score or not score."
That doesn't stop fantasy fans from trying to get a step ahead of their competitors when the opportunity presents itself. Hasselbeck says he thought there was something unusual about the number of Seahawks fans suddenly popping up in New York City earlier this fall. Following Seattle's Oct. 22 loss to Minnesota, Hasselbeck was deluged with inquiries about his brother Matt, who had sprained his right MCL and had to leave the game.
"A lot of people asked me, 'How's your brother doing?' And I'm thinking, 'Gee, that's nice of them,'" Hasselback says. "Then as the conversation goes along, I realize, 'You know what? They're not asking me because they actually care.' They want to know because they're trying to figure out, 'Is (Matt) playing next week or do I have to draft someone else?'"
http://min.scout.com/2/654896.html
Boyd Blasts NFL
By Viking Update Staff
Posted Jun 27, 2007
Former Viking guard Brent Boyd was among the former players to speak in front a Congressional sub-committee Tuesday about the failings of the NFL's policy of granting former players disability and helping them with the loss of productivity and normalcy of life due to their playing careers.
Brent Boyd, a Vikings offensive lineman from 1980-86, was among the former players who spoke to a Congressional committee Tuesday about the problems retired players have in getting pension benefits from the league and the mounting health issues that plague former players.
Boyd spoke before the House Judiciary subcommittee, along with several other players. Curt Marsh, who played with the Raiders from 1981-87 and spoke about having more than 30 surgeries, including a leg amputation, said he was denied disability payments for years despite his long track record of surgeries and complications from surgery. Boyd, a single father, discussed being homeless for extended periods as well as suffering brain damage as the result of multiple concussions.
The league countered that $1.1 billion has been set aside for a disability/pension fund and that more than $20 million in disability payments are paid out each year. To hear Boyd describe it, however, it is very different.
“Now that they have put the lipstick on the pig, I want to tell you what reality is,” Boyd told the sub-committee, adding that the league’s retirement policy has the unofficial mantra “delay, deny and hope I put a bullet in my head.”
“The NFL was hoping I would go away and die,” Boyd said.
Among the others to speak were Mike Ditka and an attorney for the late Mike Webster, who was denied full disability before his death in 2002.
The committee cited that just 317 players are currently on full disability with a payout of $20 million, prompting Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), whose husband is a former NFL player, to question how so few players can be receiving full benefits.
“In one of the most dangerous sports in the history of mankind, only 317 are receiving disability?” she asked.
Ditka made an impassioned plea to the sub-committee to put pressure on the NFL to recognize those who helped build the game and paid for it with their own long-term health. At the end of the meeting, Boyd gave Ditka a hug and said, “Thanks, Coach.”
The thought of a Vikings player and a Bears coach being on the same side of an issue would strike a lot of people as strange, but, as more of these horror stories emerge in the comings weeks and months, the strange bedfellows banding together for a mutual cause might become a much more common scene.
Friday, July 25, 1997
Boston College continues to sort out mess from gambling scandal
Associated Press
NEWTON, Mass. -- Two Boston College players have been reinstated and three others were given additional suspensions by the NCAA for their parts in the biggest gambling scandal in college football history.
The school suspended 13 players for the final three games of the 1996 season after an investigation into gambling on the Eagles football team. One has since suffered a career-ending injury, four were allowed to complete their coursework and three had their scholarships revoked.
Of the remaining five, the school said, two players have had their eligibility reinstated, two are suspended for the first two games of the 1997 season and one will sit out the first four games.
The school did not identify which players received which punishment, and a spokesman declined further comment.
Football coach Dan Henning resigned at the end of the 1996 season, due mostly to his 16-19-1 record. Basketball coach Jim O'Brien also left the school after a falling out with the admissions office over the rejection of three recruits just days after the football scandal broke.
Last week, athletic director Chet Gladchuk left to take over the same position at Houston.
The 8,800-student school was at the center of a point-shaving scandal in 1982 when Rick Kuhn was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for his role in fixing six basketball games during the 1978-79 season.
Initial reports pointed to a similar problem this time. Rumors of point-shaving first surfaced after the Oct. 26 Syracuse game, in which the Orangemen trailed 14-7 before rallying for 17 points in the final 1:43 of the first half.
After a 20-13 loss to Pittsburgh several players were confronted by Henning and the team's student captains.
Thirteen players were eventually suspended by the school, the most players ever implicated in a gambling scandal. After a nine month investigation by Middlesex County District Attorney Tom Reilly, six men were indicted last week in connection with the gambling ring -- none of them current BC athletes.
-----
http://www.lostbet.com/news_fantasy.aspx
Fantasy Football is Gambling Time Bomb for Players
Giants backup quarterback Tim Hasselbeck remembers all too well the dark cloud that descended over the Boston College football program a decade ago. And it had nothing to do with the fickle New England weather.
"I was in the locker room with guys betting against our team. It's not pretty," says Hasselbeck, who with his older brother Matt, was a member of the 1996 Eagles squad enveloped in the biggest gambling scandal in college football history. "It's an ugly, ugly situation."
Thirteen Boston College players were suspended for gambling infractions including two players - Jamall Anderson and Marcus Bembry - who bet against BC in a lopsided loss to Syracuse that season. The Eagles finished 5-7, while the school suffered a year-long backlash of negative attention - everything from revelations of BC student bookies to ties with organized crime. "An ugly situation," Hasselbeck repeats.
But Hasselbeck has a different take on the fantasy football craze in America, where an estimated 15 to 20 million sports fans - including Colts linebacker Cato June and Redskins tight end Chris Cooley - get to act as faux general managers, create their own teams, draft and trade real players and try to accumulate the most points each week based upon different statistical categories. Participants scrutinize NFL game stats with the intensity of a pro football general manager.
When asked if players participating in fantasy leagues could lead to another gambling scandal like the one he experienced as a BC undergraduate, Hasselbeck smiles.
"I know a lot of (football players) do play. And a lot of these fantasy football leagues are based on points and not necessarily money," Hasselbeck says. "But I'm sure there are plenty of them that revolve around money, which is essentially gambling. Anybody that I know who plays is playing for fun. But there's some criticism of the dangerous, slippery slope that it could possibly lead down."
The NFL may already be heading down that precarious path. June and Cooley went on the record about their fantasy football passion, with June boasting about his fantasy "Juneimus D" team featuring starting QB Tom Brady. "Playing New England, I can't be happy with him throwing a TD pass, but in the back of my mind, I'm like, 'Yeah, I just got six points in my fantasy league,'" June told ESPN a couple of weeks ago.
If it sounds like the NFL and its new commissioner Roger Goodell should be alarmed at comparisons that may be drawn between fantasy football and illegal gambling, think again.
Not only is the league not preaching concern about its players' fantasy league participation, the NFL itself promotes fantasy leagues through its own Web site - an estimated 1.3 million fans play via NFL.com - complete with grand prizes and runner-up gifts for the winners.
"It is not gambling and it is ludicrous to suggest an NFL player would give his fantasy team a higher priority than his NFL job," says NFL spokesman Greg Aiello.
Goodell, who has been on the job just over three months, echoed Aiello's remarks in a recent interview with the Daily News.
"We've been talking about that a little bit," Goodell said when asked about NFL players, fantasy leagues and possible fears of gambling. "They're not wagering on them. They're paying a fee to participate. At this point, no, it doesn't concern me, but I think it's something we'll keep an eye on - that if any way it even leads to a perception that it should concern us, we will address it."
Las Vegas gambling experts, however, see fantasy leagues in the same vein as your everyday casino patron placing a bet at the blackjack table. It's gambling, pure and simple.
"I do have a problem when the league sees gambling as this terrible thing and then they say fantasy football is this wonderful thing," says Wayne Allyn Root, the chairman and CEO of Winning Edge International, a publicly traded sports handicapping Web site. "It's the same thing. You're betting money, you're gambling, wagering, investing on the performance of players and teams, not whether they win or lose.
"If I bet on the Redskins plus-3 or plus-8, then I'm not betting on them to win. I'm betting on them to cover the point spread and the league frowns upon that. But if I'm betting on a certain Redskins player to gain 100 yards today and that's my wish in the fantasy football league, it's the same thing. I don't care if the Redskins win. I'm cheering for that one player to get yards and whether the team wins or loses means nothing to me. There's no question in my mind it's a hypocritical stance on the part of the NFL."
Adds Ed Looney of New Jersey's Council on Compulsive Gambling: "Fantasy football is like an interlude, like a stepping stone to sports betting."
Jimmy Vaccaro, a Vegas veteran who has run sports rooms for several hot spots over the last few decades and now does public relations for American Wagering, a company that owns and operates over 50 race and sports wagering locations throughout Nevada, says flatly that there is no difference in playing fantasy football and laying down a bet.
"Fantasy football is gambling," Vaccaro says. "The IRS expects you to report the money you win, end of (f------) story. I'd like to see how many IRS 1029 forms are filled out when fantasy football winners pick up their cash winnings. ... Pete Rozelle is probably turning over in his grave."
Giants running back Tiki Barber doesn't see it that way.
"I don't see anything wrong with it because most people do it for fun," Barber says. "I'm sure some people would construe it as a form of gambling, but again, since most of the fantasy leagues are friends playing together I don't see why it's a big issue.
"Unless they're putting money on it. But I don't think that's happening."
The NFL is not alone in condoning fantasy football. Both Major League Baseball and the NBA say they have no issue with their athletes morphing into mock GMs and playing with fantasy sports teams.
"We have no problem with players participating," MLB spokesman Rich Levin says. "We're not concerned."
A Division I football coach who bet with friends in an NCAA basketball pool three years ago wasn't as lucky. Rick Neuheisel, then the University of Washington football coach, was fired for participating in the pool (the NCAA prohibits betting on illegal activity). Neuheisel later won a $4.5 million settlement in his lawsuit against the NCAA and the university, when it was revealed that a university compliance officer had E-mailed Neuheisel and permitted the coach to participate in the pool.
"I understand the reasoning behind (Neuheisel's dismissal)," says Tim Hasselbeck. "But, I mean, if you could really tell me that Rick Neuheisel being in an office pool with the NCAA basketball tournament - how that affects him coaching the Huskies... Really, let's be honest. Was anything wrong really going on there?"
At least the NFL and gambling experts seem to agree on one aspect of fantasy leagues: With teams providing up-to-date injury reports throughout the week, every week, there is little chance that fantasy league enthusiasts would be able to glean insider information ahead of someone else.
"Injuries don't mean a thing," says Vaccaro. "You're better off making one straight bet on that team for the weekend. There are 10 other players on that fantasy team that can score or not score."
That doesn't stop fantasy fans from trying to get a step ahead of their competitors when the opportunity presents itself. Hasselbeck says he thought there was something unusual about the number of Seahawks fans suddenly popping up in New York City earlier this fall. Following Seattle's Oct. 22 loss to Minnesota, Hasselbeck was deluged with inquiries about his brother Matt, who had sprained his right MCL and had to leave the game.
"A lot of people asked me, 'How's your brother doing?' And I'm thinking, 'Gee, that's nice of them,'" Hasselback says. "Then as the conversation goes along, I realize, 'You know what? They're not asking me because they actually care.' They want to know because they're trying to figure out, 'Is (Matt) playing next week or do I have to draft someone else?'"
http://min.scout.com/2/654896.html
Boyd Blasts NFL
By Viking Update Staff
Posted Jun 27, 2007
Former Viking guard Brent Boyd was among the former players to speak in front a Congressional sub-committee Tuesday about the failings of the NFL's policy of granting former players disability and helping them with the loss of productivity and normalcy of life due to their playing careers.
Brent Boyd, a Vikings offensive lineman from 1980-86, was among the former players who spoke to a Congressional committee Tuesday about the problems retired players have in getting pension benefits from the league and the mounting health issues that plague former players.
Boyd spoke before the House Judiciary subcommittee, along with several other players. Curt Marsh, who played with the Raiders from 1981-87 and spoke about having more than 30 surgeries, including a leg amputation, said he was denied disability payments for years despite his long track record of surgeries and complications from surgery. Boyd, a single father, discussed being homeless for extended periods as well as suffering brain damage as the result of multiple concussions.
The league countered that $1.1 billion has been set aside for a disability/pension fund and that more than $20 million in disability payments are paid out each year. To hear Boyd describe it, however, it is very different.
“Now that they have put the lipstick on the pig, I want to tell you what reality is,” Boyd told the sub-committee, adding that the league’s retirement policy has the unofficial mantra “delay, deny and hope I put a bullet in my head.”
“The NFL was hoping I would go away and die,” Boyd said.
Among the others to speak were Mike Ditka and an attorney for the late Mike Webster, who was denied full disability before his death in 2002.
The committee cited that just 317 players are currently on full disability with a payout of $20 million, prompting Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), whose husband is a former NFL player, to question how so few players can be receiving full benefits.
“In one of the most dangerous sports in the history of mankind, only 317 are receiving disability?” she asked.
Ditka made an impassioned plea to the sub-committee to put pressure on the NFL to recognize those who helped build the game and paid for it with their own long-term health. At the end of the meeting, Boyd gave Ditka a hug and said, “Thanks, Coach.”
The thought of a Vikings player and a Bears coach being on the same side of an issue would strike a lot of people as strange, but, as more of these horror stories emerge in the comings weeks and months, the strange bedfellows banding together for a mutual cause might become a much more common scene.
Call to Try Bush
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/02
Published on Monday, February 2, 2009 by Inter Press Service
Call to Try Bush
by Julio Godoy
BERLIN - Now that former U.S. president George W. Bush is an ordinary citizen again, many legal and human rights activists in Europe are demanding that he and high-ranking members of his government be brought before justice for crimes against humanity committed in the so-called war on terror.
"Judicial clarification of the crimes against international law the former U.S. government committed is one of the most delicate issues that the new U.S. president Barack Obama will have to deal with," Wolfgang Kaleck, general secretary of the European Centre for Human and Constitutional Rights told IPS.
U.S. justice will have to "deal with the turpitudes committed by the Bush government," says Kaleck, who has already tried unsuccessfully to sue the former U.S. authorities in European courts. "And, furthermore, the U.S. government will have to pay compensation to the innocent people who were victims of these crimes."
Kaleck and other legal experts consider Bush and his highest-ranking officials responsible for crimes against humanity, such as torture.
Many agree that the evidence against the U.S. government is overwhelming. U.S. officials have admitted some crimes such as waterboarding, where a victim is tied up and water is poured into the air passages. Also, human rights activists have gathered testimonies by innocent victims of torture, especially some prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
In an interview with the German public television network ZDF, Austrian human rights lawyer Manfred Nowak, UN special rapporteur on torture, said that numerous cases of torture ordered by U.S. officials and perpetrated by U.S. authorities are well documented.
"We possess all the evidence which proves that the torture methods used in interrogation by the U.S. government were explicitly ordered by former U.S. defence minister Donald Rumsfeld," Nowak told ZDF. "Obviously, these orders were given with the highest U.S. authorities' knowledge."
"George W. Bush is without doubt responsible for crimes such as torture," says Dietmar Herz, professor of political science at the university of Erfurt, 235 km southwest of Berlin.
"According to the U.S. constitution, the U.S. president is responsible for all actions carried out by the executive," Herz told IPS. "Therefore, George W. Bush is responsible for the torture methods used by U.S. authorities, such as waterboarding."
International justice against crimes against humanity began in 1945, with the Nuremberg trials against Nazi criminals, says Kaleck. Leading prosecutor Robert Jackson said at the opening of the trials in October 1945 that "we are able to do away with...tyranny and violence and aggression by those in power against the rights of (the) people...only when we make all men answerable to the law."
But since then this promise has been fulfilled only in exceptional cases, Kaleck said.
"Crimes against humanity have been repeatedly committed ever since, but very few people have been brought before international courts for these crimes," he said, adding that this impunity is particularly obvious for leaders of the Allied countries (such as the U.S., France and Britain), who had organised the Nuremberg trials.
Nobody was ever judged for crimes against humanity committed in Algeria by France, in Vietnam and Latin America by the U.S., in Afghanistan by the Soviet Union and in Chechnya by Russia.
Only in the 1990s, after the Yugoslav wars of secession, the Rwanda genocide, and civil wars in countries such as Liberia and Sierra Leone were state criminals captured, judged and convicted.
"The creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002 in The Hague in the Netherlands marks a turning point in the prosecution of state officials accused of crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity or of war," Kaleck added.
But prosecution for crimes of war or for crimes against humanity continues to be highly selective. So far, only perpetrators from weak or failed states from south-eastern Europe, or from the south, especially Africa, have been brought to court. In a case such as that of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, Britain acted as an accomplice to protect him.
Over the last couple of years, human rights activists and some national courts in Europe have been fighting these arbitrary ways. They are appealing for, and in some cases even applying, a universal jurisdiction of national courts.
The Spanish judiciary has opened cases against Latin American dictators such as Guatemalan general Efraín Ríos Montt, who ruled the Central American country between 1982 and 1983, and Argentinean military officers involved in kidnapping and killing civilians.
Copyright © 2009 IPS-Inter Press Service
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Posted in bush, international law, torture
Published on Monday, February 2, 2009 by Inter Press Service
Call to Try Bush
by Julio Godoy
BERLIN - Now that former U.S. president George W. Bush is an ordinary citizen again, many legal and human rights activists in Europe are demanding that he and high-ranking members of his government be brought before justice for crimes against humanity committed in the so-called war on terror.
"Judicial clarification of the crimes against international law the former U.S. government committed is one of the most delicate issues that the new U.S. president Barack Obama will have to deal with," Wolfgang Kaleck, general secretary of the European Centre for Human and Constitutional Rights told IPS.
U.S. justice will have to "deal with the turpitudes committed by the Bush government," says Kaleck, who has already tried unsuccessfully to sue the former U.S. authorities in European courts. "And, furthermore, the U.S. government will have to pay compensation to the innocent people who were victims of these crimes."
Kaleck and other legal experts consider Bush and his highest-ranking officials responsible for crimes against humanity, such as torture.
Many agree that the evidence against the U.S. government is overwhelming. U.S. officials have admitted some crimes such as waterboarding, where a victim is tied up and water is poured into the air passages. Also, human rights activists have gathered testimonies by innocent victims of torture, especially some prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
In an interview with the German public television network ZDF, Austrian human rights lawyer Manfred Nowak, UN special rapporteur on torture, said that numerous cases of torture ordered by U.S. officials and perpetrated by U.S. authorities are well documented.
"We possess all the evidence which proves that the torture methods used in interrogation by the U.S. government were explicitly ordered by former U.S. defence minister Donald Rumsfeld," Nowak told ZDF. "Obviously, these orders were given with the highest U.S. authorities' knowledge."
"George W. Bush is without doubt responsible for crimes such as torture," says Dietmar Herz, professor of political science at the university of Erfurt, 235 km southwest of Berlin.
"According to the U.S. constitution, the U.S. president is responsible for all actions carried out by the executive," Herz told IPS. "Therefore, George W. Bush is responsible for the torture methods used by U.S. authorities, such as waterboarding."
International justice against crimes against humanity began in 1945, with the Nuremberg trials against Nazi criminals, says Kaleck. Leading prosecutor Robert Jackson said at the opening of the trials in October 1945 that "we are able to do away with...tyranny and violence and aggression by those in power against the rights of (the) people...only when we make all men answerable to the law."
But since then this promise has been fulfilled only in exceptional cases, Kaleck said.
"Crimes against humanity have been repeatedly committed ever since, but very few people have been brought before international courts for these crimes," he said, adding that this impunity is particularly obvious for leaders of the Allied countries (such as the U.S., France and Britain), who had organised the Nuremberg trials.
Nobody was ever judged for crimes against humanity committed in Algeria by France, in Vietnam and Latin America by the U.S., in Afghanistan by the Soviet Union and in Chechnya by Russia.
Only in the 1990s, after the Yugoslav wars of secession, the Rwanda genocide, and civil wars in countries such as Liberia and Sierra Leone were state criminals captured, judged and convicted.
"The creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002 in The Hague in the Netherlands marks a turning point in the prosecution of state officials accused of crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity or of war," Kaleck added.
But prosecution for crimes of war or for crimes against humanity continues to be highly selective. So far, only perpetrators from weak or failed states from south-eastern Europe, or from the south, especially Africa, have been brought to court. In a case such as that of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, Britain acted as an accomplice to protect him.
Over the last couple of years, human rights activists and some national courts in Europe have been fighting these arbitrary ways. They are appealing for, and in some cases even applying, a universal jurisdiction of national courts.
The Spanish judiciary has opened cases against Latin American dictators such as Guatemalan general Efraín Ríos Montt, who ruled the Central American country between 1982 and 1983, and Argentinean military officers involved in kidnapping and killing civilians.
Copyright © 2009 IPS-Inter Press Service
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Posted in bush, international law, torture
Olympic Dopes Are Drugging Horses
http://blog.peta.org/archives/2008/08/olympic_dopes_a_1.php
Olympic Dopes Are Drugging Horses
Posted at 01:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (22)
visitsthelens / CC
We all know exactly how disastrous racing can be for the horses who are whipped and drugged for entertainment. Well, the scandal doesn't stop at the Kentucky Derby—it goes all the way up to the Olympics.
That's right—four horses forced to compete in the Olympics have tested positive, and have subsequently been banned, for the drug capsaicin. Capsaicin is banned because, in the words of one article, "it is derived from the chilli pepper and is used for either medication, as a pain-killer, or for its hypersensitizing properties. In both cases a horse might jump better as a result of its use." Of course, when you mask pain and overuse a limb, the repercussions can be bone-shatteringly bad.
The four horses banned were competing in team show jumping. Their riders have also been banned from participating in individual events—and if more horses are found to have been drugged, the Olympic medals may be shifted around. Of course, this wouldn't be the first Olympics where horse-dopers have been stripped of their medals—Germany lost the gold in Athens for the same crime.
People will be shocked to hear of this scandal—and for good reason. If horses are subjected to this kind of mistreatment at the highest level of the "sport," maybe "sport" isn't the right place for these beautiful, sensitive animals. Horses should not be drugged up and run into the ground by greedy people for money or for medals, even if it means abusing animals whose athleticism wins the gold. Oh, and did you see any of the close-ups, with the horses' heads being yanked all the way to their chests and up again, their eyes almost popping out of their heads as they were jerked around? Nice.
Posted by Amanda Schinke
Olympic Dopes Are Drugging Horses
Posted at 01:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (22)
visitsthelens / CC
We all know exactly how disastrous racing can be for the horses who are whipped and drugged for entertainment. Well, the scandal doesn't stop at the Kentucky Derby—it goes all the way up to the Olympics.
That's right—four horses forced to compete in the Olympics have tested positive, and have subsequently been banned, for the drug capsaicin. Capsaicin is banned because, in the words of one article, "it is derived from the chilli pepper and is used for either medication, as a pain-killer, or for its hypersensitizing properties. In both cases a horse might jump better as a result of its use." Of course, when you mask pain and overuse a limb, the repercussions can be bone-shatteringly bad.
The four horses banned were competing in team show jumping. Their riders have also been banned from participating in individual events—and if more horses are found to have been drugged, the Olympic medals may be shifted around. Of course, this wouldn't be the first Olympics where horse-dopers have been stripped of their medals—Germany lost the gold in Athens for the same crime.
People will be shocked to hear of this scandal—and for good reason. If horses are subjected to this kind of mistreatment at the highest level of the "sport," maybe "sport" isn't the right place for these beautiful, sensitive animals. Horses should not be drugged up and run into the ground by greedy people for money or for medals, even if it means abusing animals whose athleticism wins the gold. Oh, and did you see any of the close-ups, with the horses' heads being yanked all the way to their chests and up again, their eyes almost popping out of their heads as they were jerked around? Nice.
Posted by Amanda Schinke
Olympic horses fail drugs tests
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/equestrian/7574220.stm
Olympic horses fail drugs tests
Lynch is the second Irish rider to be suspended in two Olympic Games
Four horses involved in the Olympic show jumping have tested positive for the banned substance capsaicin.
As a result, they were thrown out of Thursday's individual show jumping final in Beijing, eventually won by Canada's Eric Lamaze on Hickstead.
Ireland's Denis Lynch, riding Lantinus, was among the riders barred.
Norway's Tony Andre Hansen on Camiro, Brazil's Bernardo Alves on Chupa Chup and Germany's Christian Ahlmann on Coster were also ejected.
Lynch, Hansen and Alves had all been scheduled to compete in Thursday's individual competition, but Ahlmann was not entered into the event.
Following news of Lantinus' positive drugs test, Horse Sport Ireland said that Lynch had admitted using a product called Equi-block, which contains capsaicin, on his horse.
Capsaicin, derived from chilli peppers, can have hypersensitising effects or act as a pain relief that, in both cases, can improve the performance of the horse.
It has always been an illegal substance but the technique to discover its use has only recently been developed.
606: DEBATE
Give your thoughts on the horses' positive drugs tests
"Denis Lynch explained to the tribunal that he commonly applies Equi-block to the horse's lower back prior to exercise," said a Horse Sport Ireland spokesman.
The Irish official added that a urine sample from the horse had been submitted to a voluntary screening testing on the horse's arrival in Hong Kong and the results of this test were negative.
Lynch was competing as an individual because Ireland did not qualify for the team competition.
He described himself as shattered after being denied the opportunity to compete for an Olympic medal, adding "we have nothing to hide and have done nothing wrong".
If the horses' B sample tests confirm their A samples, their countries will be disqualified from the team show jumping, which took place on Monday.
The announcement throws into doubt the medal order of that competition.
Norway won a bronze medal, its first ever placing in an Olympics equestrian event, while the United States took gold and Canada silver.
Capsaicin is basically rubbed onto the front of the legs and it makes the horses pick up their legs
BBC equestrian commentator Michael Tucker
Norway's bronze is now in jeopardy, with that medal potentially heading Switzerland's way.
In its statement, the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) said the four horses had been "provisionally suspended by the FEI further to doping/medication control tests that indicated the present of capsaicin in each horse".
"Capsaicin is classified as a 'doping' prohibited substance given its hypersensitising properties, and as a 'medication class A' prohibited substance for its pain relieving properties."
The development casts another shadow over the equestrian after positive drugs tests forced a medal re-allocation at the 2004 Athens Games.
Germany were stripped of the team jumping gold in Athens after the horse ridden by Ludger Beerbaum, who is a lynchpin of his country's team in Beijing, was disqualified for a positive test.
Also in Athens, the Irishman Cian O'Connor was stripped of his individual gold medal on Waterford Crystal.
BBC equestrian commentator Michael Tucker told BBC Radio 5 Live: "It's very bad news all round, particularly as two of them were highly thought of as individual medals and all four riders are world-class jockeys.
"Capsaicin is basically rubbed onto the front of the legs and it makes the horses pick up their legs.
"The testing facilities and laboratories here in Hong Kong are second to none in the world class. The B samples are going to be carried out very, very quickly indeed.
"Norway will drop out of the medals and Switzerland will come up."
The ONLY solution is to enforce The Plan against the traitorous N. W. O. Zion-Nazi mass-murder, inside-job perpetrators of OKC, 911, Bali, 7/7/2005 and the phoney War on Terror and Freedom, and reinstate God's Perfect Laws of Liberty and bring the perpetrators to Justice.
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
~Herm Albright~
"I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men."
Geometrically Ordered Divinity (G.O.D.)
Olympic horses fail drugs tests
Lynch is the second Irish rider to be suspended in two Olympic Games
Four horses involved in the Olympic show jumping have tested positive for the banned substance capsaicin.
As a result, they were thrown out of Thursday's individual show jumping final in Beijing, eventually won by Canada's Eric Lamaze on Hickstead.
Ireland's Denis Lynch, riding Lantinus, was among the riders barred.
Norway's Tony Andre Hansen on Camiro, Brazil's Bernardo Alves on Chupa Chup and Germany's Christian Ahlmann on Coster were also ejected.
Lynch, Hansen and Alves had all been scheduled to compete in Thursday's individual competition, but Ahlmann was not entered into the event.
Following news of Lantinus' positive drugs test, Horse Sport Ireland said that Lynch had admitted using a product called Equi-block, which contains capsaicin, on his horse.
Capsaicin, derived from chilli peppers, can have hypersensitising effects or act as a pain relief that, in both cases, can improve the performance of the horse.
It has always been an illegal substance but the technique to discover its use has only recently been developed.
606: DEBATE
Give your thoughts on the horses' positive drugs tests
"Denis Lynch explained to the tribunal that he commonly applies Equi-block to the horse's lower back prior to exercise," said a Horse Sport Ireland spokesman.
The Irish official added that a urine sample from the horse had been submitted to a voluntary screening testing on the horse's arrival in Hong Kong and the results of this test were negative.
Lynch was competing as an individual because Ireland did not qualify for the team competition.
He described himself as shattered after being denied the opportunity to compete for an Olympic medal, adding "we have nothing to hide and have done nothing wrong".
If the horses' B sample tests confirm their A samples, their countries will be disqualified from the team show jumping, which took place on Monday.
The announcement throws into doubt the medal order of that competition.
Norway won a bronze medal, its first ever placing in an Olympics equestrian event, while the United States took gold and Canada silver.
Capsaicin is basically rubbed onto the front of the legs and it makes the horses pick up their legs
BBC equestrian commentator Michael Tucker
Norway's bronze is now in jeopardy, with that medal potentially heading Switzerland's way.
In its statement, the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) said the four horses had been "provisionally suspended by the FEI further to doping/medication control tests that indicated the present of capsaicin in each horse".
"Capsaicin is classified as a 'doping' prohibited substance given its hypersensitising properties, and as a 'medication class A' prohibited substance for its pain relieving properties."
The development casts another shadow over the equestrian after positive drugs tests forced a medal re-allocation at the 2004 Athens Games.
Germany were stripped of the team jumping gold in Athens after the horse ridden by Ludger Beerbaum, who is a lynchpin of his country's team in Beijing, was disqualified for a positive test.
Also in Athens, the Irishman Cian O'Connor was stripped of his individual gold medal on Waterford Crystal.
BBC equestrian commentator Michael Tucker told BBC Radio 5 Live: "It's very bad news all round, particularly as two of them were highly thought of as individual medals and all four riders are world-class jockeys.
"Capsaicin is basically rubbed onto the front of the legs and it makes the horses pick up their legs.
"The testing facilities and laboratories here in Hong Kong are second to none in the world class. The B samples are going to be carried out very, very quickly indeed.
"Norway will drop out of the medals and Switzerland will come up."
The ONLY solution is to enforce The Plan against the traitorous N. W. O. Zion-Nazi mass-murder, inside-job perpetrators of OKC, 911, Bali, 7/7/2005 and the phoney War on Terror and Freedom, and reinstate God's Perfect Laws of Liberty and bring the perpetrators to Justice.
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
~Herm Albright~
"I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men."
Geometrically Ordered Divinity (G.O.D.)
Positive Atheism's Big List of Bertrand Russell
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/russell.htm
Positive Atheism's Big List of
Bertrand Russell
Quotations
• No-Frames Quotes Index
• Load This File With Frames Index
• Index: Historical Writings (Russell)
• Home to Positive Atheism
Bertrand Arthur William Russell [Third Earl Russell] (1872-1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, social critic, writer
It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions make it impossible to earn a living.
-- Bertrand Russell, Skeptical Essays (1928)
My conclusion is that there is no reason to believe any of the dogmas of traditional theology and, further, that there is no reason to wish that they were true. Man, in so far as he is not subject to natural forces, is free to work out his own destiny. The responsibility is his, and so is the opportunity.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Is There a God?" commissioned by, but never published in, Illustrated Magazine (1952: repr. The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, Volume 11: Last Philosophical Testament, 1943-68, ed. John G Slater and Peter Köllner (London: Routledge, 1997), pp. 543-48, quoted from S T Joshi, Atheism: A Reader
I mean by intellectual integrity the habit of deciding vexed questions in accordance with the evidence, or of leaving them undecided where the evidence is inconclusive. This virtue, though it is underestimated by almost all adherents of any system of dogma, is to my mind of the very greatest social importance and far more likely to benefit the world than Christianity or any other system of organized beliefs.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?" (1954)
It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.
-- Bertrand Russell, from from "An Outline of Intellectual
Rubbish" in the collection, Unpopular Essays
Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.
-- Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays, "An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish" (1950), p. 149, quoted from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence; and in this respect ministers of religion follow gospel authority more closely than in some others.
-- Bertrand Russell, quoted, in part, from Jonathon Green, The Cassell Dictionary of Cynical Quotations
[Kant] was like many people: in intellectual matters he was skeptical, but in moral matters he believed imjplicitly in the maximx that he had imbibed at his mother's knee.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Why I Am Not A Christian,"
One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Why I Am Not A Christian," Little Blue Book No. 1372 edited by E Haldeman-Julius.
The essence of the liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held but in how they are held: instead of being held dogmatically, they are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment. This is the way opinions are held in science, as opposed to the way in which they are held in theology.
-- Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays, "Philosophy and Politics" (1950), p. 149, quoted from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief
The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Christian Ethics" from Marriage and Morals (1950), quoted from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief
Dogma demands authority, rather than intelligent thought, as the source of opinion; it requires persecution of heretics and hostility to unbelievers; it asks of its disciples that they should inhibit natural kindness in favor of systematic hatred.
-- Bertrand Russell, thanks to Laird Wilcox, ed, "The Degeneration of Belief"
Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false.
-- Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays, "Ideas That Have Harmed Mankind" (1950), p. 149, quoted from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief
The degree of one's emotion varies inversely with one's knowledge of the facts -- the less you know the hotter you get.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed: source unknown)
[Regarding] the convention that clergymen are more virtuous than other men. Any average selection of mankind, set apart and told that it excels the rest in virtue, must tend to sink below the average.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Religion and the Churches" (1916), quoted from Annie Laurie Gaylor, Betrayal of Trust: Clergy Abuse of Children (1988)
Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed: source unknown)
The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic.
-- Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays, "An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish" (1950), quoted from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief
Heretical views arise when the truth is uncertain, and it is only when the truth is uncertain that censorship is invoked.
-- Bertrand Russell, "The Value Of Free Thought," thanks to Laird Wilcox, ed, "The Degeneration of Belief"
The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed, the passion is the measure of the holder's lack of rational conviction.
-- Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays "On the Value of Skepticism" (1950), quoted from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief
It is permissible with certain precautions to speak in print of coitus, but it is not permissible to employ the monosyllabic synonym for this word.
-- Bertrand Russell, in the spirit of H L Mencken's quip, "It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry." (attributed: source unknown)
William James used to preach "the will to believe". For my part, I should wish to preach "the will to doubt". What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out, which is the exact opposite.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed: source unknown)
Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Is There a God?" commissioned by, but never published in, Illustrated Magazine (1952: repr. The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, Volume 11: Last Philosophical Testament, 1943-68, ed. John G Slater and Peter Köllner (London: Routledge, 1997), pp. 543-48, quoted from S T Joshi, Atheism: A Reader
That is the idea -- that we should all be wicked if we did not hold to the Christian religion. It seems to me that the people who have held to it have been for the most part extremely wicked. You find this curious fact, that the more intense has been the religion of any period and the more profound has been the dogmatic belief, the greater has been the cruelty and the worse has been the state of affairs. In the so-called Ages of faith, when men really did believe the Christian religion in all its completeness, there was the Inquisition, with all its tortures; there were millions of unfortunate women burned as witches; and there was every kind of cruelty practiced upon all sorts of people in the name of religion.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Why I Am Not A Christian," Little Blue Book No. 1372 edited by E Haldeman-Julius.
The whole conception of a God is a conception derived from the ancient oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men.... We ought to stand up and look the world frankly in the face. We ought to make the best we can of the world, and if it is not so good as we wish, after all it will still be better than what these others have made of it in all these ages.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Why I Am Not A Christian," Little Blue Book No. 1372 edited by E Haldeman-Julius.
My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race. I cannot, however, deny that it has made some contributions to civilization. It helped in early days to fix the calendar, and it caused Egyptian priests to chronicle eclipses with such care that in time they became able to predict them. These two services I am prepared to acknowledge, but I do not know of any others.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?"
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cosy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor all their own.
-- Bertrand Russell, What I Believe
I was told that the Chinese said they would bury me by the Western Lake and build a shrine to my memory. I have some slight regret that this did not happen, as I might have become a god, which would have been very chic for an atheist.
-- Bertrand Russell, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (1967-1969), quoted from Encarta Book of Quotations (1999)
Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand-in-hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things. In this world we can now begin a little to understand things, and a little to master them by the help of science, which has forced its way step by step against the Christian religion, against the churches, and against the opposition of all the old precepts. Science can help us to get over this craven fear in which mankind has lived for so many generations. Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a fit place to live in, instead of the sort of place that the churches in all these centuries have made it.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Why I Am Not A Christian," Little Blue Book No. 1372 edited by E Haldeman-Julius
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.... This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
-- Bertrand Russell, "What I Have Lived For," the prologue to his Autobiography, vol. I p. 4
My whole religion is this: do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter.
-- Bertrand Russell, childhood diary, quoted from Against the Faith by Jim Herrick
What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.
-- Bertrand Russell, Skeptical Essays (1928)
United with his fellow-men by the strongest of all ties, the tie of a common doom, the free man finds that a new vision is with him always, shedding over every daily task the light of love. The life of Man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long. One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent Death. Very brief is the time in which we can help them, in which their happiness or misery is decided. Be it ours to shed sunshine on their path, to lighten their sorrows by the balm of sympathy, to give them the pure joy of a never-tiring affection, to strengthen failing courage, to instil faith in hours of despair. Let us not weigh in grudging scales their merits and demerits, but let us think only of their need -- of the sorrows, the difficulties, perhaps the blindnesses, that make the misery of their lives; let us remember that they are fellow-sufferers in the same darkness, actors in the same tragedy as ourselves. And so, when their day is over, when their good and their evil have become eternal by the immortality of the past, be it ours to feel that, where they suffered, where they failed, no deed of ours was the cause; but wherever a spark of the divine fire kindled in their hearts, we were ready with encouragement, with sympathy, with brave words in which high courage glowed.
-- Bertrand Russell, "A Free Man's Worship" (originally "The Free Man's Worship," December, 1903)
The forms of zest are innumerable. Sherlock Holmes, it may be remembered, picked up a hat which he happened to find lying in the street. After looking at it for a moment he remarked that its owner had come down in the world as the result of drink and that his wife was no longer so fond of him as she used to be. Life could never be boring to a man to whom casual objects offered such a wealth of interest. Think of the different things that may be noticed in the course of a country walk. One man may be interested in the birds, another in the vegetation, another in the geology, another in the agriculture, and so on. Any one of these things is interesting if it interests you, and, other things being equal, the man who is interested in any one of them is better adapted to the world than the man who is not interested.
-- Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness, p. 95
Are you never afraid of God's judgment in denying him?
"Most certainly not. I also deny Zeus and Jupiter and Odin and Brahma, but this causes me no qualms. I observe that a very large portion of the human race does not believe in God and suffers no visible punishment in consequence. And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence."
-- Bertrand Russell, "What Is an Agnostic?"
What makes a free thinker is not his beliefs, but the way in which he holds them. If he holds them because his elders told him they were true when he was young, or if he holds them because if he did not he would be unhappy, his thought is not free; but if he holds them because, after careful thought, he finds a balance in their favor, then his thought is free, however odd his conclusions may seem.
-- Bertrand Russell, "The Value of Free Thought"
There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dares not face this thought! Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not rational, he becomes furious when they are disputed.
-- Bertrand Russell, Human Society in Ethics and Politics (1954), quoted from James A Haught, "Breaking the Last Taboo" (1996)
It is no credit to the orthodox that they do not now believe all the absurdities that were believed 150 years ago. The gradual emasculation of the Christian doctrine has been effected in spite of the most vigorous resistance, and solely as the result of the onslaughts of freethinkers.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?"
There is no excuse for deceiving children. And when, as must happen in conventional families, they find that their parents have lied, they lose confidence in them and feel justified in lying to them.
-- Bertrand Russell, Our Sexual Ethics (1936)
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Christian Ethics" from Marriage and Morals (1950), quoted from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief
If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it's still a foolish thing.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed: source unknown)
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed: source unknown)
There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.
-- Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays (1950), quoted from Jonathon Green, The Cassell Dictionary of Cynical Quotations
Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed: source unknown)
Of course not. After all, I may be wrong.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed), having been asked whether he would be prepared to die for his beliefs, quoted from Encarta Book of Quotations (1999)
A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.
-- Bertrand Russell, The History of Western Philosophy, quoted from Lee Eisler, ed, The Quotable Bertrand Russell
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy; I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed: source unknown)
This, however, is a passing nightmare; in time the earth will become again incapable of supporting life, and peace will return.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed: source unknown)
The ONLY solution is to enforce The Plan against the traitorous N. W. O. Zion-Nazi mass-murder, inside-job perpetrators of OKC, 911, Bali, 7/7/2005 and the phoney War on Terror and Freedom, and reinstate God's Perfect Laws of Liberty and bring the perpetrators to Justice.
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
~Herm Albright~
"I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men."
Geometrically Ordered Divinity (G.O.D.)
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Bertrand Arthur William Russell [Third Earl Russell] (1872-1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, social critic, writer
It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions make it impossible to earn a living.
-- Bertrand Russell, Skeptical Essays (1928)
My conclusion is that there is no reason to believe any of the dogmas of traditional theology and, further, that there is no reason to wish that they were true. Man, in so far as he is not subject to natural forces, is free to work out his own destiny. The responsibility is his, and so is the opportunity.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Is There a God?" commissioned by, but never published in, Illustrated Magazine (1952: repr. The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, Volume 11: Last Philosophical Testament, 1943-68, ed. John G Slater and Peter Köllner (London: Routledge, 1997), pp. 543-48, quoted from S T Joshi, Atheism: A Reader
I mean by intellectual integrity the habit of deciding vexed questions in accordance with the evidence, or of leaving them undecided where the evidence is inconclusive. This virtue, though it is underestimated by almost all adherents of any system of dogma, is to my mind of the very greatest social importance and far more likely to benefit the world than Christianity or any other system of organized beliefs.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?" (1954)
It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.
-- Bertrand Russell, from from "An Outline of Intellectual
Rubbish" in the collection, Unpopular Essays
Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.
-- Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays, "An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish" (1950), p. 149, quoted from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence; and in this respect ministers of religion follow gospel authority more closely than in some others.
-- Bertrand Russell, quoted, in part, from Jonathon Green, The Cassell Dictionary of Cynical Quotations
[Kant] was like many people: in intellectual matters he was skeptical, but in moral matters he believed imjplicitly in the maximx that he had imbibed at his mother's knee.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Why I Am Not A Christian,"
One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Why I Am Not A Christian," Little Blue Book No. 1372 edited by E Haldeman-Julius.
The essence of the liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held but in how they are held: instead of being held dogmatically, they are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment. This is the way opinions are held in science, as opposed to the way in which they are held in theology.
-- Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays, "Philosophy and Politics" (1950), p. 149, quoted from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief
The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Christian Ethics" from Marriage and Morals (1950), quoted from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief
Dogma demands authority, rather than intelligent thought, as the source of opinion; it requires persecution of heretics and hostility to unbelievers; it asks of its disciples that they should inhibit natural kindness in favor of systematic hatred.
-- Bertrand Russell, thanks to Laird Wilcox, ed, "The Degeneration of Belief"
Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false.
-- Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays, "Ideas That Have Harmed Mankind" (1950), p. 149, quoted from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief
The degree of one's emotion varies inversely with one's knowledge of the facts -- the less you know the hotter you get.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed: source unknown)
[Regarding] the convention that clergymen are more virtuous than other men. Any average selection of mankind, set apart and told that it excels the rest in virtue, must tend to sink below the average.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Religion and the Churches" (1916), quoted from Annie Laurie Gaylor, Betrayal of Trust: Clergy Abuse of Children (1988)
Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed: source unknown)
The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic.
-- Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays, "An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish" (1950), quoted from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief
Heretical views arise when the truth is uncertain, and it is only when the truth is uncertain that censorship is invoked.
-- Bertrand Russell, "The Value Of Free Thought," thanks to Laird Wilcox, ed, "The Degeneration of Belief"
The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed, the passion is the measure of the holder's lack of rational conviction.
-- Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays "On the Value of Skepticism" (1950), quoted from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief
It is permissible with certain precautions to speak in print of coitus, but it is not permissible to employ the monosyllabic synonym for this word.
-- Bertrand Russell, in the spirit of H L Mencken's quip, "It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry." (attributed: source unknown)
William James used to preach "the will to believe". For my part, I should wish to preach "the will to doubt". What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out, which is the exact opposite.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed: source unknown)
Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Is There a God?" commissioned by, but never published in, Illustrated Magazine (1952: repr. The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, Volume 11: Last Philosophical Testament, 1943-68, ed. John G Slater and Peter Köllner (London: Routledge, 1997), pp. 543-48, quoted from S T Joshi, Atheism: A Reader
That is the idea -- that we should all be wicked if we did not hold to the Christian religion. It seems to me that the people who have held to it have been for the most part extremely wicked. You find this curious fact, that the more intense has been the religion of any period and the more profound has been the dogmatic belief, the greater has been the cruelty and the worse has been the state of affairs. In the so-called Ages of faith, when men really did believe the Christian religion in all its completeness, there was the Inquisition, with all its tortures; there were millions of unfortunate women burned as witches; and there was every kind of cruelty practiced upon all sorts of people in the name of religion.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Why I Am Not A Christian," Little Blue Book No. 1372 edited by E Haldeman-Julius.
The whole conception of a God is a conception derived from the ancient oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men.... We ought to stand up and look the world frankly in the face. We ought to make the best we can of the world, and if it is not so good as we wish, after all it will still be better than what these others have made of it in all these ages.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Why I Am Not A Christian," Little Blue Book No. 1372 edited by E Haldeman-Julius.
My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race. I cannot, however, deny that it has made some contributions to civilization. It helped in early days to fix the calendar, and it caused Egyptian priests to chronicle eclipses with such care that in time they became able to predict them. These two services I am prepared to acknowledge, but I do not know of any others.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?"
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cosy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor all their own.
-- Bertrand Russell, What I Believe
I was told that the Chinese said they would bury me by the Western Lake and build a shrine to my memory. I have some slight regret that this did not happen, as I might have become a god, which would have been very chic for an atheist.
-- Bertrand Russell, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (1967-1969), quoted from Encarta Book of Quotations (1999)
Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand-in-hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things. In this world we can now begin a little to understand things, and a little to master them by the help of science, which has forced its way step by step against the Christian religion, against the churches, and against the opposition of all the old precepts. Science can help us to get over this craven fear in which mankind has lived for so many generations. Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a fit place to live in, instead of the sort of place that the churches in all these centuries have made it.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Why I Am Not A Christian," Little Blue Book No. 1372 edited by E Haldeman-Julius
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.... This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
-- Bertrand Russell, "What I Have Lived For," the prologue to his Autobiography, vol. I p. 4
My whole religion is this: do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter.
-- Bertrand Russell, childhood diary, quoted from Against the Faith by Jim Herrick
What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.
-- Bertrand Russell, Skeptical Essays (1928)
United with his fellow-men by the strongest of all ties, the tie of a common doom, the free man finds that a new vision is with him always, shedding over every daily task the light of love. The life of Man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long. One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent Death. Very brief is the time in which we can help them, in which their happiness or misery is decided. Be it ours to shed sunshine on their path, to lighten their sorrows by the balm of sympathy, to give them the pure joy of a never-tiring affection, to strengthen failing courage, to instil faith in hours of despair. Let us not weigh in grudging scales their merits and demerits, but let us think only of their need -- of the sorrows, the difficulties, perhaps the blindnesses, that make the misery of their lives; let us remember that they are fellow-sufferers in the same darkness, actors in the same tragedy as ourselves. And so, when their day is over, when their good and their evil have become eternal by the immortality of the past, be it ours to feel that, where they suffered, where they failed, no deed of ours was the cause; but wherever a spark of the divine fire kindled in their hearts, we were ready with encouragement, with sympathy, with brave words in which high courage glowed.
-- Bertrand Russell, "A Free Man's Worship" (originally "The Free Man's Worship," December, 1903)
The forms of zest are innumerable. Sherlock Holmes, it may be remembered, picked up a hat which he happened to find lying in the street. After looking at it for a moment he remarked that its owner had come down in the world as the result of drink and that his wife was no longer so fond of him as she used to be. Life could never be boring to a man to whom casual objects offered such a wealth of interest. Think of the different things that may be noticed in the course of a country walk. One man may be interested in the birds, another in the vegetation, another in the geology, another in the agriculture, and so on. Any one of these things is interesting if it interests you, and, other things being equal, the man who is interested in any one of them is better adapted to the world than the man who is not interested.
-- Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness, p. 95
Are you never afraid of God's judgment in denying him?
"Most certainly not. I also deny Zeus and Jupiter and Odin and Brahma, but this causes me no qualms. I observe that a very large portion of the human race does not believe in God and suffers no visible punishment in consequence. And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence."
-- Bertrand Russell, "What Is an Agnostic?"
What makes a free thinker is not his beliefs, but the way in which he holds them. If he holds them because his elders told him they were true when he was young, or if he holds them because if he did not he would be unhappy, his thought is not free; but if he holds them because, after careful thought, he finds a balance in their favor, then his thought is free, however odd his conclusions may seem.
-- Bertrand Russell, "The Value of Free Thought"
There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dares not face this thought! Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not rational, he becomes furious when they are disputed.
-- Bertrand Russell, Human Society in Ethics and Politics (1954), quoted from James A Haught, "Breaking the Last Taboo" (1996)
It is no credit to the orthodox that they do not now believe all the absurdities that were believed 150 years ago. The gradual emasculation of the Christian doctrine has been effected in spite of the most vigorous resistance, and solely as the result of the onslaughts of freethinkers.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?"
There is no excuse for deceiving children. And when, as must happen in conventional families, they find that their parents have lied, they lose confidence in them and feel justified in lying to them.
-- Bertrand Russell, Our Sexual Ethics (1936)
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.
-- Bertrand Russell, "Christian Ethics" from Marriage and Morals (1950), quoted from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief
If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it's still a foolish thing.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed: source unknown)
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed: source unknown)
There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.
-- Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays (1950), quoted from Jonathon Green, The Cassell Dictionary of Cynical Quotations
Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed: source unknown)
Of course not. After all, I may be wrong.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed), having been asked whether he would be prepared to die for his beliefs, quoted from Encarta Book of Quotations (1999)
A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.
-- Bertrand Russell, The History of Western Philosophy, quoted from Lee Eisler, ed, The Quotable Bertrand Russell
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy; I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed: source unknown)
This, however, is a passing nightmare; in time the earth will become again incapable of supporting life, and peace will return.
-- Bertrand Russell (attributed: source unknown)
The ONLY solution is to enforce The Plan against the traitorous N. W. O. Zion-Nazi mass-murder, inside-job perpetrators of OKC, 911, Bali, 7/7/2005 and the phoney War on Terror and Freedom, and reinstate God's Perfect Laws of Liberty and bring the perpetrators to Justice.
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
~Herm Albright~
"I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men."
Geometrically Ordered Divinity (G.O.D.)
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