On 12/29/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> I have been waiting for this news story for a year and a half because I've
> never believed that Michael Hastings was killed in a simple car accident.
> My
> computer was down when it happened, but I remember hearing that he'd been
> working on a big story. I hope this reads OK because I couldn't get it into
> formatted text.
> Miriam
>
>
>
>
>
> http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/wikileaks-cia-s-brennan-on-witch-hu
> nt-when-hastings-was-killed/article/421913
>
>
> Wikileaks: CIA's Brennan on 'witch hunt' when Hastings was killed
>
> Posted Dec 26, 2014 by Ralph Lopez
>
> A 2010 email released by Wikileaks from a top-level CIA contractor asserts
> that CIA Director John Brennan, the subject of a story by now deceased
> journalist Michael Hastings, was on a "witch hunt" against "investigative
> journalists" perceived as hostile.
>
>
>
> Michael Hastings and Valerie Jarrett at McCormick Place in Chicago
>
> Michael Hastings and Valerie Jarrett at McCormick Place in Chicago
>
> John Santore
>
> Hastings, a reporter for the Rolling Stone who ruffled many feathers in his
> career, was killed in an unusual high-speed car accident in which the
> vehicle exploded on impact with a tree, and perhaps before. Hastings' wife
> confirmed to San Diego 6 News Television, soon after the uncharacteristic
> high-speed automobile crash, that Hastings' next "big story," as he called
> it, was to be on Brennan.
> The email,written by Stratfor President Fred Burton and reported by San
> Diego 6, reads:
> Brennan is behind the witch hunts of investigative journalists learning
> information from inside the beltway sources.
> Note -- There is specific tasker from the WH to go after anyone printing
> materials negative to the Obama agenda (oh my.) Even the FBI is shocked.
> The
> Wonder Boys must be in meltdown mode...
> The story on Brennan was never published.
> Stratfor was once called "The Shadow CIA"by Barron's. In 2012 WikiLeaks
> began publishing "The Global Intelligence Files," over five million e-mails
> from the Texas-based company.
> The email has never been disavowed by Stratfor. When San Diego 6 reporter
> Kim Dvorak asked the CIA for comment on the email in the context of the
> Hastings' death, in an August, 2013 report, a CIA spokesman responded:
> "Without commenting on information disseminated by WikiLeaks, any
> suggestion
> that Director Brennan has ever attempted to infringe on
> constitutionally-protected press freedoms is offensive and baseless."
> Michael Hasting was killed on June 18, 2013, when the new Mercedes C250 SUV
> he had just leased hit a tree after running numerous red lights at over 100
> mph in Los Angeles. A surveillance video at a pizza shop captured a fiery,
> violent explosion, which is uncharacteristic of high-speed impacts.
> Generations of advances in safety design have made accidents exhibiting
> these characteristics unheard of.
> Typically, high speed impacts, even in past generations of automobiles, are
> characterized by a violent, horrific-sounding crunching of metal and glass,
> but no gas explosion. Fire can follow, but ignition usually takes place
> after the initial impact, as fuel vapors heat up and come into contact with
> hot surfaces. According to the National Fire Protection Association, only
> 3%
> of cars catch on fire as the result of crash impacts, and impact explosions
> are not a statistical category.
> The pizza shop video shows a fireball which explodes outward for hundreds
> of
> feet in all directions and immediately lights up the night sky. Skeptics of
> the official LAPD conclusion, that no foul play was involved, cite a
> witness
> who saidthat "It sounded like a bomb going off in the middle of the night."
>
> Witnesses also reported the car was already on firebefore it hit the tree.
> Hastings crash video taken from pizza shop surveillance camera
>
>
>
> Hours before he died, Hastings sent out a series of frantic emails to
> friends and colleagues, indicating that be believed he was being
> investigated by the FBI and sounding "panicked," according to his friend
> Sgt. Joe Biggs, whom he had met in Afghanistan.
> In an in-depth interview with San Diego 6 reporter Kim Dvorak,and Hastings
> friend Sgt. Biggs, Biggs tells RT interviewer Abby Martin that he had
> received an email indicating that police had been present at Hastings'
> house
> that day, and that Hastings had been seen looking underneath his car. The
> San Diego journalist Kim Dvorak expresses her belief, after extensive
> investigation, that the Hastings crash was not a simple one-car accident,
> and may have involved foul play. She notes the police are withholding
> evidence such as the "black box" onboard the vehicles, which would have
> recorded all electronic events involving the car's controls.
> San Diego 6 report
>
>
>
> After Hastings' death, his notes on the Brennan story were suppressed,
> according to WesternJournalism.com, and in any event the Rolling Stone
> never
> published the story despite pledges to do so.
> After at first saying that"At no time was Michael Hastings, or anything
> related to his work as a journalist, ever under investigation by the FBI,"
> the FBI subsequently revised its statement to: "At no time was journalist
> Michael Hastings ever under investigation by the FBI." Freedom of
> Information Act requests from reporters revealed that the FBI had indeed
> cataloged some of Hastings' articles, and discussed him in heavily redacted
> documents.
> Brennan was architect of CIA "Disposition Matrix" capture/kill list
> CIA Director Brennanmade news during his confirmation hearings in early
> 2013, when he was nominated for the position by Obama. Of particular
> concern
> to some senators was Brennan's role in creating the "Disposition Matrix,"an
> Obama administration project started in 2010, described by government
> officials as a "next-generation capture/kill list."
> Brennan also served under the George W. Bush administration, first as
> chief-of-staff to CIA Director George Tenet, then as deputy executive
> director of the CIA.
> Of the "Disposition Matrix" run by the executive branch National
> Counterterrorism Center (NCTC,) and heavily shaped by Brennan in his role
> as
> Obama National Security Advisor, Glenn Greenwald for the UK Guardianwrote:
> What has been created here - permanently institutionalized - is a highly
> secretive executive branch agency that simultaneously engages in two
> functions: (1) it collects and analyzes massive amounts of surveillance
> data
> about all Americans without any judicial review let alone search warrants,
> and (2) creates and implements a "matrix" that determines the "disposition"
> of suspects, up to and including execution, without a whiff of due process
> or oversight.
> Before his Senate confirmation vote for CIA Director, Kentucky Senator Rand
> Paulmounted a filibuster against Brennan's confirmation, saying:
> "No one politician should be allowed to judge the guilt, to charge an
> individual, to judge the guilt of an individual and to execute an
> individual. It goes against everything that we fundamentally believe in our
> country."
> Brennan was eventually confirmed by a vote of 63-34.
> RT interview of San Diego 6 reporter Kim Dvorak and Hastings friend Sgt.
> Joe
> Biggs
>
>
>
> Similar concerns moved Oregon Senator Ron Wydento write a letter to Brennan
> asking him to clarify if he believed the extrajudicial assassination
> system,
> deemed unconstitutional by civil libertarians, applied to American citizens
> on American soil. Brennan wrote back that he believed it did not. This did
> not assuage the concerns of many on this issue, however, since the Obama
> administration gave a different answer when US Attorney General Eric
> Holderrefused to rule out the assassination of American citizens within the
> United States.
> Brennan has become controversial on other issues. Right-leaning sources
> accuse Brennanof being behind the US policy of running arms to Al
> Qaeda-linked Syrian rebels.
> In an unusual public comment on the case, former Bush national
> counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke told the Huffington Post:
> it's relatively easy to hack your way into the control system of a car, and
> to do such things as cause acceleration when the driver doesn't want
> acceleration, to throw on the brakes when the driver doesn't want the
> brakes
> on...
> After denying he was a "conspiracy guy," the former top US
> counter-terrorism
> official went on to say:
> ...in the case of Michael Hastings, what evidence is available publicly is
> consistent with a car cyber attack.
> Typical high-speed cras
>
>
>
>
>
>
> http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/wikileaks-cia-s-brennan-on-witch-hu
> nt-when-hastings-was-killed/article/421913
>
>
> Wikileaks: CIA's Brennan on 'witch hunt' when Hastings was killed
>
> Posted Dec 26, 2014 by Ralph Lopez
>
> A 2010 email released by Wikileaks from a top-level CIA contractor asserts
> that CIA Director John Brennan, the subject of a story by now deceased
> journalist Michael Hastings, was on a "witch hunt" against "investigative
> journalists" perceived as hostile.
>
>
>
> Michael Hastings and Valerie Jarrett at McCormick Place in Chicago
>
> Michael Hastings and Valerie Jarrett at McCormick Place in Chicago
>
> John Santore
>
> Hastings, a reporter for the Rolling Stone who ruffled many feathers in his
> career, was killed in an unusual high-speed car accident in which the
> vehicle exploded on impact with a tree, and perhaps before. Hastings' wife
> confirmed to San Diego 6 News Television, soon after the uncharacteristic
> high-speed automobile crash, that Hastings' next "big story," as he called
> it, was to be on Brennan.
> The email,written by Stratfor President Fred Burton and reported by San
> Diego 6, reads:
> Brennan is behind the witch hunts of investigative journalists learning
> information from inside the beltway sources.
> Note -- There is specific tasker from the WH to go after anyone printing
> materials negative to the Obama agenda (oh my.) Even the FBI is shocked.
> The
> Wonder Boys must be in meltdown mode...
> The story on Brennan was never published.
> Stratfor was once called "The Shadow CIA"by Barron's. In 2012 WikiLeaks
> began publishing "The Global Intelligence Files," over five million e-mails
> from the Texas-based company.
> The email has never been disavowed by Stratfor. When San Diego 6 reporter
> Kim Dvorak asked the CIA for comment on the email in the context of the
> Hastings' death, in an August, 2013 report, a CIA spokesman responded:
> "Without commenting on information disseminated by WikiLeaks, any
> suggestion
> that Director Brennan has ever attempted to infringe on
> constitutionally-protected press freedoms is offensive and baseless."
> Michael Hasting was killed on June 18, 2013, when the new Mercedes C250 SUV
> he had just leased hit a tree after running numerous red lights at over 100
> mph in Los Angeles. A surveillance video at a pizza shop captured a fiery,
> violent explosion, which is uncharacteristic of high-speed impacts.
> Generations of advances in safety design have made accidents exhibiting
> these characteristics unheard of.
> Typically, high speed impacts, even in past generations of automobiles, are
> characterized by a violent, horrific-sounding crunching of metal and glass,
> but no gas explosion. Fire can follow, but ignition usually takes place
> after the initial impact, as fuel vapors heat up and come into contact with
> hot surfaces. According to the National Fire Protection Association, only
> 3%
> of cars catch on fire as the result of crash impacts, and impact explosions
> are not a statistical category.
> The pizza shop video shows a fireball which explodes outward for hundreds
> of
> feet in all directions and immediately lights up the night sky. Skeptics of
> the official LAPD conclusion, that no foul play was involved, cite a
> witness
> who saidthat "It sounded like a bomb going off in the middle of the night."
>
> Witnesses also reported the car was already on firebefore it hit the tree.
> Hastings crash video taken from pizza shop surveillance camera
>
>
>
> Hours before he died, Hastings sent out a series of frantic emails to
> friends and colleagues, indicating that be believed he was being
> investigated by the FBI and sounding "panicked," according to his friend
> Sgt. Joe Biggs, whom he had met in Afghanistan.
> In an in-depth interview with San Diego 6 reporter Kim Dvorak,and Hastings
> friend Sgt. Biggs, Biggs tells RT interviewer Abby Martin that he had
> received an email indicating that police had been present at Hastings'
> house
> that day, and that Hastings had been seen looking underneath his car. The
> San Diego journalist Kim Dvorak expresses her belief, after extensive
> investigation, that the Hastings crash was not a simple one-car accident,
> and may have involved foul play. She notes the police are withholding
> evidence such as the "black box" onboard the vehicles, which would have
> recorded all electronic events involving the car's controls.
> San Diego 6 report
>
>
>
> After Hastings' death, his notes on the Brennan story were suppressed,
> according to WesternJournalism.com, and in any event the Rolling Stone
> never
> published the story despite pledges to do so.
> After at first saying that"At no time was Michael Hastings, or anything
> related to his work as a journalist, ever under investigation by the FBI,"
> the FBI subsequently revised its statement to: "At no time was journalist
> Michael Hastings ever under investigation by the FBI." Freedom of
> Information Act requests from reporters revealed that the FBI had indeed
> cataloged some of Hastings' articles, and discussed him in heavily redacted
> documents.
> Brennan was architect of CIA "Disposition Matrix" capture/kill list
> CIA Director Brennanmade news during his confirmation hearings in early
> 2013, when he was nominated for the position by Obama. Of particular
> concern
> to some senators was Brennan's role in creating the "Disposition Matrix,"an
> Obama administration project started in 2010, described by government
> officials as a "next-generation capture/kill list."
> Brennan also served under the George W. Bush administration, first as
> chief-of-staff to CIA Director George Tenet, then as deputy executive
> director of the CIA.
> Of the "Disposition Matrix" run by the executive branch National
> Counterterrorism Center (NCTC,) and heavily shaped by Brennan in his role
> as
> Obama National Security Advisor, Glenn Greenwald for the UK Guardianwrote:
> What has been created here - permanently institutionalized - is a highly
> secretive executive branch agency that simultaneously engages in two
> functions: (1) it collects and analyzes massive amounts of surveillance
> data
> about all Americans without any judicial review let alone search warrants,
> and (2) creates and implements a "matrix" that determines the "disposition"
> of suspects, up to and including execution, without a whiff of due process
> or oversight.
> Before his Senate confirmation vote for CIA Director, Kentucky Senator Rand
> Paulmounted a filibuster against Brennan's confirmation, saying:
> "No one politician should be allowed to judge the guilt, to charge an
> individual, to judge the guilt of an individual and to execute an
> individual. It goes against everything that we fundamentally believe in our
> country."
> Brennan was eventually confirmed by a vote of 63-34.
> RT interview of San Diego 6 reporter Kim Dvorak and Hastings friend Sgt.
> Joe
> Biggs
>
>
>
> Similar concerns moved Oregon Senator Ron Wydento write a letter to Brennan
> asking him to clarify if he believed the extrajudicial assassination
> system,
> deemed unconstitutional by civil libertarians, applied to American citizens
> on American soil. Brennan wrote back that he believed it did not. This did
> not assuage the concerns of many on this issue, however, since the Obama
> administration gave a different answer when US Attorney General Eric
> Holderrefused to rule out the assassination of American citizens within the
> United States.
> Brennan has become controversial on other issues. Right-leaning sources
> accuse Brennanof being behind the US policy of running arms to Al
> Qaeda-linked Syrian rebels.
> In an unusual public comment on the case, former Bush national
> counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke told the Huffington Post:
> it's relatively easy to hack your way into the control system of a car, and
> to do such things as cause acceleration when the driver doesn't want
> acceleration, to throw on the brakes when the driver doesn't want the
> brakes
> on...
> After denying he was a "conspiracy guy," the former top US
> counter-terrorism
> official went on to say:
> ...in the case of Michael Hastings, what evidence is available publicly is
> consistent with a car cyber attack.
> Typical high-speed cras
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
Monday, December 29, 2014
Re: Tom Atchison, hand in hand with God
Does it matter? In the short haul, no. But in the larger scheme of
things, it really does matter. Let's say that you are extremely
wealthy. A multibillionaire. You hire a few folks to go out to the
community and find those folks who are down on their luck, and offer
them help. But of course the help, which is substantial, comes with a
string. To receive your help, and to continue to receive it, these
folks must pledge to uphold you as their Savior. Their hero.
Everywhere they go they must sing your praises. Any time they hear a
negative word spoken about you, they will defend your good name and
drive the offender away.
Over the years these people prosper and multiply. But as time passes,
you become eager to acquire more and more followers, and more and more
wealth. And so, to make a long boring story shorter, you begin to
pressure, to bully your followers to become more aggressive. Still,
you are going about doing good, even to those who do not want your
good. But you have carefully made certain that your loyal followers
have been so rewarded and so conditioned, that they will never turn on
you, no matter what.
Soon it is not enough for your people to spread the good news, they
now must insist that the people they talk to accept your help. As
time passes, the ways they "invite" folks to accept your ways become
more and more akin to bullying.
We might say that these people are still going forward trying to help
others, but the others no longer want that help. Your followers can
see that they are meeting with resistance, but they continue to push,
because they are loyal to you. Now, instead of questioning what they
are doing, and to what purpose, they have become mindless puppets. If
we do not teach our children to think for themselves, to respect and
like themselves, to respect and like others, to never become mindless
robots, we will have failed them.
Without the training and the tools to think and act on their own, they
will lose the ability to make decisions on their own.
Tell me, is doing good because the Master says it is good, the same as
doing good because you know that it is?
Carl Jarvis
On 12/29/14, joe harcz Comcast <joeharcz@comcast.net> wrote:
> No it doesn't matter. Good is good. Bad is bad. Hmmm....Mighty manichean of
> me....Smile....
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Alice Dampman Humel
> To: Blind Democracy Discussion List
> Sent: Monday, December 29, 2014 4:14 PM
> Subject: Re: Tom Atchison, hand in hand with God
>
>
> As long as the behavior is truly "moral," and the practitioners of
> whatever ideology aren't going around bashing people over the head with it
> or burning them at the stake for not believing it or practicing it
> correctly, which, obviously, is not moral behavior at all, then does it
> really make any difference?
> If I feed the hungry, clothe the shivering, care for the sick, the
> elderly, the dying, the orphans, if I give alms to the poor or build homes
> for them with Habitat, does it really matter why I do it?
>
>
> On Dec 29, 2014, at 11:04 AM, Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Ah yes, the "Good Book". Seems that even God is a product of His
> times.
> Should we pick and choose from His Word, and try to create a Plan for
> a Better Life? Or should we admit that all religion's Holy Books are
> the product of Human Imagination? Can we develop a high standard of
> moral behavior without the need of supernatural creatures?
>
> Carl Jarvis
> On 12/29/14, ted chittenden <tchittenden@cox.net> wrote:
>
> Alice:
> After sending in my last response on this topic, I remembered that
> someone
> writing on the ex-Mormon board had taken the time and trouble to
> research
> it. Below my signature is a link to that post and the responses
> he/she
> received from it and the text of the post itself.
> --
> Ted Chittenden
>
> Every story has at least two sides if not more.
> ----
> http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1397288,1397288#msg-1397288
>
> Posted by: kolobian ( )
> Date: October 07, 2014 06:41AM
>
> For Arwen: Slavery in the Bible
>
>
> Hi Arwen,
>
> Saw your message after the prior thread closed. Here's some light
> reading
> regarding the subject. Notice that many christians who are unfamiliar
> with
> the bible will try to obfuscate the issue by ignoring the passages
> about
> real slavery and pretend the only passages about it refer to the
> hebrew
> indentured servants. That's dishonest as you can see below:
>
> Except for murder, slavery has got to be one of the most immoral
> things a
> person can do. Yet slavery is rampant throughout the Bible in both the
> Old
> and New Testaments. The Bible clearly approves of slavery in many
> passages,
> and it goes so far as to tell how to obtain slaves, how hard you can
> beat
> them, and when you can have sex with the female slaves.
>
>
>
> Many Jews and Christians will try to ignore the moral problems of
> slavery by
> saying that these slaves were actually servants or indentured
> servants. Many
> translations of the Bible use the word "servant", "bondservant", or
> "manservant" instead of "slave" to make the Bible seem less immoral
> than it
> really is. While many slaves may have worked as household servants,
> that
> doesn't mean that they were not slaves who were bought, sold, and
> treated
> worse than livestock.
>
>
>
> The following passage shows that slaves are clearly property to be
> bought
> and sold like livestock.
>
>
>
> However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the
> foreigners
> who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such
> resident
> foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may
> treat
> them as your property, passing them on to your children as a
> permanent
> inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of
> Israel,
> your relatives, must never be treated this way. (Leviticus 25:44-46
> NLT)
>
>
>
> The following passage describes how the Hebrew slaves are to be
> treated.
>
>
>
> If you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for only six years. Set him
> free
> in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. If
> he was
> single when he became your slave and then married afterward, only he
> will go
> free in the seventh year. But if he was married before he became a
> slave,
> then his wife will be freed with him. If his master gave him a wife
> while he
> was a slave, and they had sons or daughters, then the man will be free
> in
> the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his
> master.
> But the slave may plainly declare, 'I love my master, my wife, and my
> children. I would rather not go free.' If he does this, his master
> must
> present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door and
> publicly pierce his ear with an awl. After that, the slave will belong
> to
> his master forever. (Exodus 21:2-6 NLT)
>
>
>
> Notice how they can get a male Hebrew slave to become a permanent
> slave by
> keeping his wife and children hostage until he says he wants to become
> a
> permanent slave. What kind of family values are these?
>
>
>
> The following passage describes the sickening practice of sex slavery.
> How
> can anyone think it is moral to sell your own daughter as a sex
> slave?
>
>
>
> When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the
> end
> of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought
> her,
> he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to
> sell her
> to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her.
> And if
> the slave girl's owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no
> longer
> treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If
> he
> himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her
> food
> or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any
> of
> these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any
> payment.
> (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)
>
>
>
> So these are the Bible family values! A man can buy as many sex slaves
> as he
> wants as long as he feeds them, clothes them, and screws them!
>
>
>
> What does the Bible say about beating slaves? It says you can beat
> both male
> and female slaves with a rod so hard that as long as they don't die
> right
> away you are cleared of any wrong doing.
>
>
>
> When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that
> the
> slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the
> slave
> survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave
> is his
> own property. (Exodus 21:20-21 NAB)
>
>
>
> You would think that Jesus and the New Testament would have a
> different view
> of slavery, but slavery is still approved of in the New Testament, as
> the
> following passages show.
>
>
>
> Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve
> them
> sincerely as you would serve Christ. (Ephesians 6:5 NLT)
>
>
>
> Christians who are slaves should give their masters full respect so
> that the
> name of God and his teaching will not be shamed. If your master is a
> Christian, that is no excuse for being disrespectful. You should work
> all
> the harder because you are helping another believer by your efforts.
> Teach
> these truths, Timothy, and encourage everyone to obey them. (1 Timothy
> 6:1-2
> NLT)
>
>
>
> In the following parable, Jesus clearly approves of beating slaves
> even if
> they didn't know they were doing anything wrong.
>
>
>
> The servant will be severely punished, for though he knew his duty,
> he
> refused to do it. "But people who are not aware that they are doing
> wrong
> will be punished only lightly. Much is required from those to whom
> much is
> given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is
> given."
> (Luke 12:47-48 NLT)
> ---- Alice Dampman Humel <alicedh@verizon.net> wrote:
> Well, I can't see it your way.
> I don't care *what* the alleged motivation or ideology is behind this
> odious
> person's actions, his actions are despicable and inhumane and cruel
> and a
> whole host of other adjectives.
> I think those of us who wish to make this about religion more than
> about the
> outrageous, demeaning, discriminatory, exploitative nature of this
> crustacean's *actions* are actually doing a disservice to what should
> be
> concentrated, unflagging efforts to stop crooks like this guy and the
> host
> of other cheats and con artists out there preying on the vulnerable
> and
> defenseless.
> Having some kind of con up their sleeves is the name of their game to
> lure
> people in, and I don't care what the con is, it has to be stopped.
> There are plenty of religious and other ideologically-motivated
> organizations out there that are doing good work just as there are
> many
> religious and other ideologically motivated organizations out there
> doing
> evil and unspeakable damage. So let's concentrate on those, whatever
> their
> ideology, and stop them from their exploitation, their greedy
> predatory
> actions.
> Alice
> On Dec 28, 2014, at 11:29 PM, Charles Krugman
> <ckrugman@sbcglobal.net>
> wrote:
>
>
> and people wonder why I am an atheist.
> Chuck
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Carl Jarvis
> Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2014 8:24 PM
> To: Blind Democracy Discussion List
> Subject: Tom Atchison, hand in hand with God
>
> Okay, so a con artist is a con artist whether disguised as a Wall
> Street Broker or clothed as a pastor.
> But for some reason I'm more disgusted with scum like Tom Atchison,
> the self styled Holy Man. If anyone could change my thinking, and
> bring me to a belief in the Hereafter, it would be Tom Atchison.
> I see a barren rock in Hades. Tom Atchison lies bound to a stone
> slab. One by one, each individual he cheated and bullied during
> his
> greedy, self serving years on Earth, steps forward and spats upon
> his
> naked body. And where their spittle lands, the flesh blisters and
> a
> horrid open sore bubbles up. Tom Atchison screams with the pain,
> as
> another spit ball strikes.
> But of course there is no Hereafter. Tom Atchison has been living
> a
> wonderful life off the misery of others. Dressed and behaving in a
> way that elicits trust from the down trodden.
> Forcing the poor and downcast to work for room and board, in order
> for
> him to stash away a fortune. Yes, Tom Atchison, a true example of
> Capitalism at its finest.
>
> Carl Jarvis
>
>
>
> On 12/28/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> ________________________________________
> AlterNet [1] / By Cliff Weathers [2]
>
> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>
>
> December 2, 2014 |
> The CEO of a Tampa Bay area charity has been exploiting homeless
> people
> by
> forcing them to work without pay to earn their food and shelter.
> And
> while
> the homeless men aren't compensated for their labor, the
> Christian
> charity,
> New Beginnings of Tampa, often is.
> According to the Tampa Bay Times [3], the charity's CEO, Tom
> Atchison,
> has
> been farming out his residents as indentured servants to work at
> concession
> stands at local events, including state fairs, NASCAR races, Tampa
> Bay
> Rays
> baseball games, Bucs football games and Lightning hockey games.
> The paper says that the men - many of them recovering addicts and
> alcoholics
> - are often asked to work food and beer concessions. The money
> earned
> working there, the Times reports, goes directly to New Beginnings.
> In
> total
> it earned $932,816 in such income last year. Center Plate, the
> concessions
> operator for Tropicana Field says it's unaware that its concession
> stands
> were staffed by homeless people.
> Compensating labor with only food and shelter is nothing new;
> homeless
> charities, like the Salvation Army, have been doing it for many
> years.
> However, this practice requires charities to show that the workers
> are
> being
> compensated with services that are equal to what they'd earn with
> the
> federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. But by his own
> admission,
> Atchison does not document hours worked. Labor activists and
> homeless
> advocates say that the residents are providing far too much work
> for what
> they're given in return.
> "It needs to stop," Lee Hoffman, a former resident told the Times.
> "There
> are a bunch of homeless people who are being exploited."
> In addition to working on labor crews, Atchison has had homeless
> people
> work
> in telemarketing, construction, landscaping, moving, and even
> grant
> writing.
> If a homeless person wishes not to participate in the labor
> program,
> they're
> charged $600 a month for meals and rent.
> And while New Beginnings refers to this labor as "work therapy"
> critics
> are
> calling it illegal. Even worse, New Beginnings is a faith-based
> public
> charity that gets public money to fund its operations. Atchison,
> an
> erstwhile Pentecostal pastor (the paper could not verify his
> doctorate in
> theology) is vying for the contract to operate Hillsborough
> County's
> homeless program. The paper says that contract in Hillsborough
> County
> (which
> includes Tampa) will be worth millions.
> The Times investigation, which included digging through police
> records
> and
> court records, bank statements and interviews with current and
> former
> residents and employees, paints a picture of a shady operation.
> Atchison is accused of absconding with Social Security checks and
> food
> stamps belonging to residents, even if they were for more than
> residents
> owed to the program. A contractor is also accusing New Beginnings
> of
> overbilling the State of Florida some $80,000.
> In addition, while part of the mission of New Beginnings is to
> provide
> counseling to its residents, the paper found that the charity has
> nobody
> on
> staff that's trained to tend to those with mental illness and
> addiction
> problems.
> The sports news site Deadspin reports that the Lightning NHL
> hockey
> franchise honored Atchison last year as "a community hero [4]."
> See the video (below) of Atchison discussing New Beginnings of
> Tampa in
> 2012.
> [5]
>
> See more stories tagged with:
> Faith based charities [6]
> ________________________________________
> Source URL:
>
> http://www.alternet.org/homeless-people-forced-unpaid-labor-christian-pastor
> Links:
> [1] http://alternet.org
> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/cliff-weathers
> [3]
>
> http://www.tampabay.com/news/specials/tampa-homeless-program-uses-unpaid-des
> titute-residents-as-steady-labor/2208350
> [4] http://lightning.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=656477
> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian
> Pastor
> Finds
> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> [6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/faith-based-charities
> [7] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Home > Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the
> Homeless
>
> AlterNet [1] / By Cliff Weathers [2]
>
> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> December 2, 2014 |
> The CEO of a Tampa Bay area charity has been exploiting homeless
> people
> by
> forcing them to work without pay to earn their food and shelter.
> And
> while
> the homeless men aren't compensated for their labor, the
> Christian
> charity,
> New Beginnings of Tampa, often is.
> According to the Tampa Bay Times [3], the charity's CEO, Tom
> Atchison,
> has
> been farming out his residents as indentured servants to work at
> concession
> stands at local events, including state fairs, NASCAR races, Tampa
> Bay
> Rays
> baseball games, Bucs football games and Lightning hockey games.
> The paper says that the men - many of them recovering addicts and
> alcoholics
> - are often asked to work food and beer concessions. The money
> earned
> working there, the Times reports, goes directly to New Beginnings.
> In
> total
> it earned $932,816 in such income last year. Center Plate, the
> concessions
> operator for Tropicana Field says it's unaware that its concession
> stands
> were staffed by homeless people.
> Compensating labor with only food and shelter is nothing new;
> homeless
> charities, like the Salvation Army, have been doing it for many
> years.
> However, this practice requires charities to show that the workers
> are
> being
> compensated with services that are equal to what they'd earn with
> the
> federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. But by his own
> admission,
> Atchison does not document hours worked. Labor activists and
> homeless
> advocates say that the residents are providing far too much work
> for what
> they're given in return.
> "It needs to stop," Lee Hoffman, a former resident told the Times.
> "There
> are a bunch of homeless people who are being exploited."
> In addition to working on labor crews, Atchison has had homeless
> people
> work
> in telemarketing, construction, landscaping, moving, and even
> grant
> writing.
> If a homeless person wishes not to participate in the labor
> program,
> they're
> charged $600 a month for meals and rent.
> And while New Beginnings refers to this labor as "work therapy"
> critics
> are
> calling it illegal. Even worse, New Beginnings is a faith-based
> public
> charity that gets public money to fund its operations. Atchison,
> an
> erstwhile Pentecostal pastor (the paper could not verify his
> doctorate in
> theology) is vying for the contract to operate Hillsborough
> County's
> homeless program. The paper says that contract in Hillsborough
> County
> (which
> includes Tampa) will be worth millions.
> The Times investigation, which included digging through police
> records
> and
> court records, bank statements and interviews with current and
> former
> residents and employees, paints a picture of a shady operation.
> Atchison is accused of absconding with Social Security checks and
> food
> stamps belonging to residents, even if they were for more than
> residents
> owed to the program. A contractor is also accusing New Beginnings
> of
> overbilling the State of Florida some $80,000.
> In addition, while part of the mission of New Beginnings is to
> provide
> counseling to its residents, the paper found that the charity has
> nobody
> on
> staff that's trained to tend to those with mental illness and
> addiction
> problems.
> The sports news site Deadspin reports that the Lightning NHL
> hockey
> franchise honored Atchison last year as "a community hero [4]."
> See the video (below) of Atchison discussing New Beginnings of
> Tampa in
> 2012.
> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor
> Finds
> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor
> Finds
> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless[5]
> See more stories tagged with:
> Faith based charities [6]
>
> Source URL:
>
> http://www.alternet.org/homeless-people-forced-unpaid-labor-christian-pastor
>
> Links:
> [1] http://alternet.org
> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/cliff-weathers
> [3]
>
> http://www.tampabay.com/news/specials/tampa-homeless-program-uses-unpaid-des
> titute-residents-as-steady-labor/2208350
> [4] http://lightning.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=656477
> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian
> Pastor
> Finds
> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> [6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/faith-based-charities
> [7] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
things, it really does matter. Let's say that you are extremely
wealthy. A multibillionaire. You hire a few folks to go out to the
community and find those folks who are down on their luck, and offer
them help. But of course the help, which is substantial, comes with a
string. To receive your help, and to continue to receive it, these
folks must pledge to uphold you as their Savior. Their hero.
Everywhere they go they must sing your praises. Any time they hear a
negative word spoken about you, they will defend your good name and
drive the offender away.
Over the years these people prosper and multiply. But as time passes,
you become eager to acquire more and more followers, and more and more
wealth. And so, to make a long boring story shorter, you begin to
pressure, to bully your followers to become more aggressive. Still,
you are going about doing good, even to those who do not want your
good. But you have carefully made certain that your loyal followers
have been so rewarded and so conditioned, that they will never turn on
you, no matter what.
Soon it is not enough for your people to spread the good news, they
now must insist that the people they talk to accept your help. As
time passes, the ways they "invite" folks to accept your ways become
more and more akin to bullying.
We might say that these people are still going forward trying to help
others, but the others no longer want that help. Your followers can
see that they are meeting with resistance, but they continue to push,
because they are loyal to you. Now, instead of questioning what they
are doing, and to what purpose, they have become mindless puppets. If
we do not teach our children to think for themselves, to respect and
like themselves, to respect and like others, to never become mindless
robots, we will have failed them.
Without the training and the tools to think and act on their own, they
will lose the ability to make decisions on their own.
Tell me, is doing good because the Master says it is good, the same as
doing good because you know that it is?
Carl Jarvis
On 12/29/14, joe harcz Comcast <joeharcz@comcast.net> wrote:
> No it doesn't matter. Good is good. Bad is bad. Hmmm....Mighty manichean of
> me....Smile....
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Alice Dampman Humel
> To: Blind Democracy Discussion List
> Sent: Monday, December 29, 2014 4:14 PM
> Subject: Re: Tom Atchison, hand in hand with God
>
>
> As long as the behavior is truly "moral," and the practitioners of
> whatever ideology aren't going around bashing people over the head with it
> or burning them at the stake for not believing it or practicing it
> correctly, which, obviously, is not moral behavior at all, then does it
> really make any difference?
> If I feed the hungry, clothe the shivering, care for the sick, the
> elderly, the dying, the orphans, if I give alms to the poor or build homes
> for them with Habitat, does it really matter why I do it?
>
>
> On Dec 29, 2014, at 11:04 AM, Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Ah yes, the "Good Book". Seems that even God is a product of His
> times.
> Should we pick and choose from His Word, and try to create a Plan for
> a Better Life? Or should we admit that all religion's Holy Books are
> the product of Human Imagination? Can we develop a high standard of
> moral behavior without the need of supernatural creatures?
>
> Carl Jarvis
> On 12/29/14, ted chittenden <tchittenden@cox.net> wrote:
>
> Alice:
> After sending in my last response on this topic, I remembered that
> someone
> writing on the ex-Mormon board had taken the time and trouble to
> research
> it. Below my signature is a link to that post and the responses
> he/she
> received from it and the text of the post itself.
> --
> Ted Chittenden
>
> Every story has at least two sides if not more.
> ----
> http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1397288,1397288#msg-1397288
>
> Posted by: kolobian ( )
> Date: October 07, 2014 06:41AM
>
> For Arwen: Slavery in the Bible
>
>
> Hi Arwen,
>
> Saw your message after the prior thread closed. Here's some light
> reading
> regarding the subject. Notice that many christians who are unfamiliar
> with
> the bible will try to obfuscate the issue by ignoring the passages
> about
> real slavery and pretend the only passages about it refer to the
> hebrew
> indentured servants. That's dishonest as you can see below:
>
> Except for murder, slavery has got to be one of the most immoral
> things a
> person can do. Yet slavery is rampant throughout the Bible in both the
> Old
> and New Testaments. The Bible clearly approves of slavery in many
> passages,
> and it goes so far as to tell how to obtain slaves, how hard you can
> beat
> them, and when you can have sex with the female slaves.
>
>
>
> Many Jews and Christians will try to ignore the moral problems of
> slavery by
> saying that these slaves were actually servants or indentured
> servants. Many
> translations of the Bible use the word "servant", "bondservant", or
> "manservant" instead of "slave" to make the Bible seem less immoral
> than it
> really is. While many slaves may have worked as household servants,
> that
> doesn't mean that they were not slaves who were bought, sold, and
> treated
> worse than livestock.
>
>
>
> The following passage shows that slaves are clearly property to be
> bought
> and sold like livestock.
>
>
>
> However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the
> foreigners
> who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such
> resident
> foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may
> treat
> them as your property, passing them on to your children as a
> permanent
> inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of
> Israel,
> your relatives, must never be treated this way. (Leviticus 25:44-46
> NLT)
>
>
>
> The following passage describes how the Hebrew slaves are to be
> treated.
>
>
>
> If you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for only six years. Set him
> free
> in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. If
> he was
> single when he became your slave and then married afterward, only he
> will go
> free in the seventh year. But if he was married before he became a
> slave,
> then his wife will be freed with him. If his master gave him a wife
> while he
> was a slave, and they had sons or daughters, then the man will be free
> in
> the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his
> master.
> But the slave may plainly declare, 'I love my master, my wife, and my
> children. I would rather not go free.' If he does this, his master
> must
> present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door and
> publicly pierce his ear with an awl. After that, the slave will belong
> to
> his master forever. (Exodus 21:2-6 NLT)
>
>
>
> Notice how they can get a male Hebrew slave to become a permanent
> slave by
> keeping his wife and children hostage until he says he wants to become
> a
> permanent slave. What kind of family values are these?
>
>
>
> The following passage describes the sickening practice of sex slavery.
> How
> can anyone think it is moral to sell your own daughter as a sex
> slave?
>
>
>
> When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the
> end
> of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought
> her,
> he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to
> sell her
> to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her.
> And if
> the slave girl's owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no
> longer
> treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If
> he
> himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her
> food
> or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any
> of
> these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any
> payment.
> (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)
>
>
>
> So these are the Bible family values! A man can buy as many sex slaves
> as he
> wants as long as he feeds them, clothes them, and screws them!
>
>
>
> What does the Bible say about beating slaves? It says you can beat
> both male
> and female slaves with a rod so hard that as long as they don't die
> right
> away you are cleared of any wrong doing.
>
>
>
> When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that
> the
> slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the
> slave
> survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave
> is his
> own property. (Exodus 21:20-21 NAB)
>
>
>
> You would think that Jesus and the New Testament would have a
> different view
> of slavery, but slavery is still approved of in the New Testament, as
> the
> following passages show.
>
>
>
> Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve
> them
> sincerely as you would serve Christ. (Ephesians 6:5 NLT)
>
>
>
> Christians who are slaves should give their masters full respect so
> that the
> name of God and his teaching will not be shamed. If your master is a
> Christian, that is no excuse for being disrespectful. You should work
> all
> the harder because you are helping another believer by your efforts.
> Teach
> these truths, Timothy, and encourage everyone to obey them. (1 Timothy
> 6:1-2
> NLT)
>
>
>
> In the following parable, Jesus clearly approves of beating slaves
> even if
> they didn't know they were doing anything wrong.
>
>
>
> The servant will be severely punished, for though he knew his duty,
> he
> refused to do it. "But people who are not aware that they are doing
> wrong
> will be punished only lightly. Much is required from those to whom
> much is
> given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is
> given."
> (Luke 12:47-48 NLT)
> ---- Alice Dampman Humel <alicedh@verizon.net> wrote:
> Well, I can't see it your way.
> I don't care *what* the alleged motivation or ideology is behind this
> odious
> person's actions, his actions are despicable and inhumane and cruel
> and a
> whole host of other adjectives.
> I think those of us who wish to make this about religion more than
> about the
> outrageous, demeaning, discriminatory, exploitative nature of this
> crustacean's *actions* are actually doing a disservice to what should
> be
> concentrated, unflagging efforts to stop crooks like this guy and the
> host
> of other cheats and con artists out there preying on the vulnerable
> and
> defenseless.
> Having some kind of con up their sleeves is the name of their game to
> lure
> people in, and I don't care what the con is, it has to be stopped.
> There are plenty of religious and other ideologically-motivated
> organizations out there that are doing good work just as there are
> many
> religious and other ideologically motivated organizations out there
> doing
> evil and unspeakable damage. So let's concentrate on those, whatever
> their
> ideology, and stop them from their exploitation, their greedy
> predatory
> actions.
> Alice
> On Dec 28, 2014, at 11:29 PM, Charles Krugman
> <ckrugman@sbcglobal.net>
> wrote:
>
>
> and people wonder why I am an atheist.
> Chuck
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Carl Jarvis
> Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2014 8:24 PM
> To: Blind Democracy Discussion List
> Subject: Tom Atchison, hand in hand with God
>
> Okay, so a con artist is a con artist whether disguised as a Wall
> Street Broker or clothed as a pastor.
> But for some reason I'm more disgusted with scum like Tom Atchison,
> the self styled Holy Man. If anyone could change my thinking, and
> bring me to a belief in the Hereafter, it would be Tom Atchison.
> I see a barren rock in Hades. Tom Atchison lies bound to a stone
> slab. One by one, each individual he cheated and bullied during
> his
> greedy, self serving years on Earth, steps forward and spats upon
> his
> naked body. And where their spittle lands, the flesh blisters and
> a
> horrid open sore bubbles up. Tom Atchison screams with the pain,
> as
> another spit ball strikes.
> But of course there is no Hereafter. Tom Atchison has been living
> a
> wonderful life off the misery of others. Dressed and behaving in a
> way that elicits trust from the down trodden.
> Forcing the poor and downcast to work for room and board, in order
> for
> him to stash away a fortune. Yes, Tom Atchison, a true example of
> Capitalism at its finest.
>
> Carl Jarvis
>
>
>
> On 12/28/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> ________________________________________
> AlterNet [1] / By Cliff Weathers [2]
>
> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>
>
> December 2, 2014 |
> The CEO of a Tampa Bay area charity has been exploiting homeless
> people
> by
> forcing them to work without pay to earn their food and shelter.
> And
> while
> the homeless men aren't compensated for their labor, the
> Christian
> charity,
> New Beginnings of Tampa, often is.
> According to the Tampa Bay Times [3], the charity's CEO, Tom
> Atchison,
> has
> been farming out his residents as indentured servants to work at
> concession
> stands at local events, including state fairs, NASCAR races, Tampa
> Bay
> Rays
> baseball games, Bucs football games and Lightning hockey games.
> The paper says that the men - many of them recovering addicts and
> alcoholics
> - are often asked to work food and beer concessions. The money
> earned
> working there, the Times reports, goes directly to New Beginnings.
> In
> total
> it earned $932,816 in such income last year. Center Plate, the
> concessions
> operator for Tropicana Field says it's unaware that its concession
> stands
> were staffed by homeless people.
> Compensating labor with only food and shelter is nothing new;
> homeless
> charities, like the Salvation Army, have been doing it for many
> years.
> However, this practice requires charities to show that the workers
> are
> being
> compensated with services that are equal to what they'd earn with
> the
> federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. But by his own
> admission,
> Atchison does not document hours worked. Labor activists and
> homeless
> advocates say that the residents are providing far too much work
> for what
> they're given in return.
> "It needs to stop," Lee Hoffman, a former resident told the Times.
> "There
> are a bunch of homeless people who are being exploited."
> In addition to working on labor crews, Atchison has had homeless
> people
> work
> in telemarketing, construction, landscaping, moving, and even
> grant
> writing.
> If a homeless person wishes not to participate in the labor
> program,
> they're
> charged $600 a month for meals and rent.
> And while New Beginnings refers to this labor as "work therapy"
> critics
> are
> calling it illegal. Even worse, New Beginnings is a faith-based
> public
> charity that gets public money to fund its operations. Atchison,
> an
> erstwhile Pentecostal pastor (the paper could not verify his
> doctorate in
> theology) is vying for the contract to operate Hillsborough
> County's
> homeless program. The paper says that contract in Hillsborough
> County
> (which
> includes Tampa) will be worth millions.
> The Times investigation, which included digging through police
> records
> and
> court records, bank statements and interviews with current and
> former
> residents and employees, paints a picture of a shady operation.
> Atchison is accused of absconding with Social Security checks and
> food
> stamps belonging to residents, even if they were for more than
> residents
> owed to the program. A contractor is also accusing New Beginnings
> of
> overbilling the State of Florida some $80,000.
> In addition, while part of the mission of New Beginnings is to
> provide
> counseling to its residents, the paper found that the charity has
> nobody
> on
> staff that's trained to tend to those with mental illness and
> addiction
> problems.
> The sports news site Deadspin reports that the Lightning NHL
> hockey
> franchise honored Atchison last year as "a community hero [4]."
> See the video (below) of Atchison discussing New Beginnings of
> Tampa in
> 2012.
> [5]
>
> See more stories tagged with:
> Faith based charities [6]
> ________________________________________
> Source URL:
>
> http://www.alternet.org/homeless-people-forced-unpaid-labor-christian-pastor
> Links:
> [1] http://alternet.org
> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/cliff-weathers
> [3]
>
> http://www.tampabay.com/news/specials/tampa-homeless-program-uses-unpaid-des
> titute-residents-as-steady-labor/2208350
> [4] http://lightning.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=656477
> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian
> Pastor
> Finds
> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> [6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/faith-based-charities
> [7] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Home > Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the
> Homeless
>
> AlterNet [1] / By Cliff Weathers [2]
>
> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> December 2, 2014 |
> The CEO of a Tampa Bay area charity has been exploiting homeless
> people
> by
> forcing them to work without pay to earn their food and shelter.
> And
> while
> the homeless men aren't compensated for their labor, the
> Christian
> charity,
> New Beginnings of Tampa, often is.
> According to the Tampa Bay Times [3], the charity's CEO, Tom
> Atchison,
> has
> been farming out his residents as indentured servants to work at
> concession
> stands at local events, including state fairs, NASCAR races, Tampa
> Bay
> Rays
> baseball games, Bucs football games and Lightning hockey games.
> The paper says that the men - many of them recovering addicts and
> alcoholics
> - are often asked to work food and beer concessions. The money
> earned
> working there, the Times reports, goes directly to New Beginnings.
> In
> total
> it earned $932,816 in such income last year. Center Plate, the
> concessions
> operator for Tropicana Field says it's unaware that its concession
> stands
> were staffed by homeless people.
> Compensating labor with only food and shelter is nothing new;
> homeless
> charities, like the Salvation Army, have been doing it for many
> years.
> However, this practice requires charities to show that the workers
> are
> being
> compensated with services that are equal to what they'd earn with
> the
> federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. But by his own
> admission,
> Atchison does not document hours worked. Labor activists and
> homeless
> advocates say that the residents are providing far too much work
> for what
> they're given in return.
> "It needs to stop," Lee Hoffman, a former resident told the Times.
> "There
> are a bunch of homeless people who are being exploited."
> In addition to working on labor crews, Atchison has had homeless
> people
> work
> in telemarketing, construction, landscaping, moving, and even
> grant
> writing.
> If a homeless person wishes not to participate in the labor
> program,
> they're
> charged $600 a month for meals and rent.
> And while New Beginnings refers to this labor as "work therapy"
> critics
> are
> calling it illegal. Even worse, New Beginnings is a faith-based
> public
> charity that gets public money to fund its operations. Atchison,
> an
> erstwhile Pentecostal pastor (the paper could not verify his
> doctorate in
> theology) is vying for the contract to operate Hillsborough
> County's
> homeless program. The paper says that contract in Hillsborough
> County
> (which
> includes Tampa) will be worth millions.
> The Times investigation, which included digging through police
> records
> and
> court records, bank statements and interviews with current and
> former
> residents and employees, paints a picture of a shady operation.
> Atchison is accused of absconding with Social Security checks and
> food
> stamps belonging to residents, even if they were for more than
> residents
> owed to the program. A contractor is also accusing New Beginnings
> of
> overbilling the State of Florida some $80,000.
> In addition, while part of the mission of New Beginnings is to
> provide
> counseling to its residents, the paper found that the charity has
> nobody
> on
> staff that's trained to tend to those with mental illness and
> addiction
> problems.
> The sports news site Deadspin reports that the Lightning NHL
> hockey
> franchise honored Atchison last year as "a community hero [4]."
> See the video (below) of Atchison discussing New Beginnings of
> Tampa in
> 2012.
> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor
> Finds
> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor
> Finds
> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless[5]
> See more stories tagged with:
> Faith based charities [6]
>
> Source URL:
>
> http://www.alternet.org/homeless-people-forced-unpaid-labor-christian-pastor
>
> Links:
> [1] http://alternet.org
> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/cliff-weathers
> [3]
>
> http://www.tampabay.com/news/specials/tampa-homeless-program-uses-unpaid-des
> titute-residents-as-steady-labor/2208350
> [4] http://lightning.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=656477
> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian
> Pastor
> Finds
> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> [6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/faith-based-charities
> [7] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
Page 139 #39: The right to bear arms is old news.
Like yesterday's news, gun rights have become obsolete. Those gun
advocates had better begin a campaign for the right to bear
drones....and tanks....and nukes.
Why do these gun worshipers insist that Violence Begets Peace?
"And God said, let there be guns. And there were. And He looked upon
them and said, when the last shot is fired, there shall be ever
lasting peace. And so it came to pass."
Carl Jarvis
Carl Jarvis
On 12/29/14, ted chittenden <tchittenden@cox.net> wrote:
> Hi to all.
>
> I was having some trouble sleeping last night so I turned on my radio and
> began dialing around. Our part liberal talk/part CBS Sports station was
> carrying Gary Sullivan doing a show on home improvement. The financial guru
> with a personality cult, Dave Ramsey, was on KTAR-FM. I then went to the
> Salem-owned conservative talk outlet, KKNT-AM, and heard, for the first
> time, the show Armed American Radio. The guest when I tuned in was Alan
> Korwin, a pro-gun writer. I stayed to listen, mainly because of Mr. Korwin's
> attacks on Thom Hartmann. And I'm glad I did! Near the end of the interview,
> Mr. Korwin made the following statement:
>
> "when you pick up your firearm, feel the freedom that it brings."
>
> Holding a firearm may give you a sense of power; a sense of control; and,
> possibly, a sense of conquest. But I do not believe it gives one a sense of
> freedom unless you define freedom as seeking power, control, and the
> conquest of others. And sadly, some people seek just that.
>
> Anyway, Mr. Korwin gave his website address at the end of his interview:
>
> http://www.gunlaws.com
>
> and his page 139 blog commentaries. This morning, I decided to take a look
> at Mr. Korwin's blog, and it is as radical a gun rights blog as you could
> wish. I'm going to place the text of Blog Post page 139, #39, below my
> signature, and below its actual web address. This post on the passing of
> James Brady (the press secretary who was wounded when John Hinckley tried to
> shoot President Ronald Reagan in 1981) shows how radically dangerous some of
> these pro-gun rights advocates have become.
> --
> Ted Chittenden
>
> Every story has at least two sides if not more.
> ----
> http://www.gunlaws.com/Page9Folder100up/PageNine-139.htm
> PAGE NINE No. 139
>
>
> August 6, 2014
>
> "Brady Bill" Namesake James Brady Dies at Age 73
>
> National Media Glorifies Him But Gets Story Wrong
>
>
> Attacks on the Civil Right to Arms to Continue Unabated
>
> Criminal acts still cleverly used as leverage to disarm the innocent
>
> Sarah, not Jim, the real force behind the anti-rights movement
>
>
> by Alan Korwin, Author
> Gun Laws of America
> GunLaws.com
> Aug. 6, 2014
>
>
>
>
> "There's no way to tell if you're on
> the Brady rights-denied list, (the "NICS Index")
> and attempting to buy a firearm
> if you're on the government list is a felony.
> Attempting to find out if you're on the list is a crime."
>
>
>
>
>
> James Brady, the White House Press Secretary under President Ronald Reagan
> has died. He was 73. He is being credited with "stunning successes" in the
> "gun-control" efforts in America.
>
> Brady had been shot in the head with a .22 caliber revolver during an
> assassination attempt on president Reagan in 1981, and was severely
> incapacitated by the injury. Confined to a wheel chair for the balance of
> his life, in constant pain and speaking only with extreme difficulty, his
> ambitious and attractive young wife Sarah was understandably horrified and
> reportedly turned bitter by the life-changing tragedy. Their world had
> turned upside down.
>
> Continuing a long tradition of spinning gun-related news to fit a set of
> beliefs instead of conformance with the facts, the "news" media is
> portraying James Brady as the moving force behind what is now the Brady
> Center for the Prevention of Gun Violence, formerly the Brady Campaign to
> Prevent Gun Violence, formerly the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence Allied
> with The Million Moms March, formerly the Center to Prevent Handgun
> Violence, formerly Handgun Control, Inc., formerly the National Council to
> Ban Handguns.
>
>
>
> Jim Brady Never Ran The Brady Group
>
> His wife Sarah however was the public face and driving force of the
> anti-gun-rights movement the entire time, which is common knowledge to
> everyone in the field. Husband Jim was wheeled out infrequently at selected
> events, often to thunderous applause, where he would wave weakly,
> occasionally say a few garbled words, and leave the rest of the activity to
> his wife and others. He was incapable of much else due to the unfortunate
> tragedy he endured.
>
> The Brady Bill, technically The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act,
> eventually took control of every firearm sold at retail in America, not just
> handguns as originally promoted, thanks to a little noticed portion that
> took effect automatically in 1998 -- five years after Congress voted to pass
> the bill in 1993. Delayed passage of unexpected, controversial or unpopular
> provisions of law is a questionable practice, according to leading experts.
> It caught most gun owners by complete surprise.
>
>
>
> Five-Day "Cooling Off" Period Was Promo, Not Real
>
> The much vaunted five-day waiting (or "cooling off") period, promoted by the
> "news" media as the reason for passing the bill, was never a significant
> part of even the handgun law, never part of the all-firearms bill, and is
> not part of the bill now.
>
> It was basically used as feel-good leverage to pass the bill for those who
> didn't read it, and for media promotion. Many people still believe there is
> a five-day waiting period in the law, even though there isn't now and
> effectively never was. The "news" media has done little or nothing to
> clarify the point, leaving the public with the same false impression, 21
> years later. But it feels good, according to some with inside knowledge of
> the situation.
>
> Some states have enacted their own waiting periods of differing lengths and
> conditions. The 'holy grail' of waiting periods, a long sought after goal of
> anti-gun-rights activists, has been largely abandoned, left on the dust heap
> of history. It eventually became obvious, even to die-hard activists, that
> it was illogical to sell guns to the furiously angry, and then hope they
> remain calm for the rest of their lives after a five-day wait to get armed.
> http://www.gunlaws.com/WaitingPeriodsEssay.htm
>
>
>
> Rights Denied With No Due Process
>
> Although "news" reports are literally promoting a factoid, presented with no
> corroboration, that the Brady bill has prevented two million gun transfers
> from taking place, there is no evidence that the bill has prevented any
> criminals from arming themselves. Disarming criminals is the stated goal of
> the bill.
>
> In fact, gangs and criminals in America are known to be heavily armed
> despite every law on the books banning such activity. In that sense, the
> Brady bill is an abject failure, but at least it is enormously expensive,
> diverts scarce resources from other desperately needed uses, impacts every
> innocent person who shops for firearms, and provides massive employment for
> law-enforcement officials and the NICS background-check center in West
> Virginia. None of these points made any "news" reports.
>
> What the two-million figure actually represents, assuming the number is
> correct, is people denied their fundamental civil and human right to obtain
> firearms -- without due process, a court hearing, submission of evidence,
> representation of counsel, or a decent appeals process. In fairness though,
> there is an administrative process that leads to frequent reversals due to
> bad records, name similarities and plain old government snafus, unmentioned
> in "news" accounts. How many should truly be denied firearms for cause is
> unknown, uninvestigated and unquestioned, except here.
>
> In other words, the public's "specific, enumerated right" (District of
> Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 628 n.27 (2008) to keep and bear arms,
> gets banned under the Brady bill by bureaucrats and a computer terminal,
> without immediate or easy redress.
>
> There is no way to tell if you are on the Brady gun-rights-denied list,
> (technically, the "NICS Index") and attempting to exercise your rights and
> buy a firearm if you are on the government list is a felony. Attempting to
> find out if you're on the list is a crime. The Brady system is, by design,
> tyrannical.
>
> The alternative BIDS system, at 90% less cost, would accomplish the same
> Brady-like purpose of preventing criminals from buying firearms at retail
> and paying sales tax, yet would not infringe on the innocent, but has gotten
> a cold shoulder from officials, for reasons that were unclear at press
> time.
>
> http://www.gunlaws.com/BIDSvNICS.htm.
>
> Using the BIDS approach (Blind Identification System), the list of
> prohibited possessors is made available, encrypted and password protected,
> to federally licensed dealers, who can look up prospective buyers, similar
> to wanted posters, to prevent sales to undesirables, while keeping the names
> of the innocent out of government hands. The need for huge federal employee
> banks and overhead is eliminated entirely.
>
> How many of the two million prevented transfers were real criminals trying
> to buy guns who should be arrested for it? That's been studied. Virtually
> none, at astronomical cost, it's easily googled (a NICS stop is insufficient
> grounds to dispatch law enforcement, and virtually never "grounds for
> successful prosecution," Translation: a hard-enough crime has not been
> committed). This is the "success" the media splashes in our faces. For
> shame.
>
>
> Brady Gave FBI Centralized Control Over The Public
>
> The main tangible result of the Brady bill was to authorize more than $250
> million initially, with unknown subsequent funding, for the FBI to build its
> long-desired centralized computer center in Clarksburg, W. Va., from which
> it could check out any American from a single location. With funding
> unavailable for years, the furor over "gun control" provided the final
> impetus to construct the huge campus that houses the NICS center that
> performs background checks on every new gun sold in America. Its other uses
> are a closely guarded secret.
>
> The FBI's NICS center is the largest retail-control system of any kind in
> the world, keeping tabs, in real time, of sales nationwide of a consumer
> product. It now handles an average of more than a million requests a month.
> See a diagram of how it works here:
> http://www.gunlaws.com/images/nicsbig.gif
>
> The system is capable of turning off gun sales nationally -- or regionally
> -- at the flip of a switch, and has done so repeatedly, on "a trial basis,"
> for "scheduled maintenance," and "unexpected outages," even during busy
> holiday-buying seasons, or during weekend gun shows, sometimes for days at a
> time. http://www.gunlaws.com/brady8day.htm. System up time has improved over
> the years.
>
>
>
> National Gun Registration System Can't Be Confirmed
>
> Although the Brady system isn't supposed to maintain a list of gun buyers,
> which is banned by federal law (FOPA, 1986, and the Brady bill itself),
> public confidence in this is low. When originally built, Janet Reno, the
> attorney general under whose authority it was constructed, claimed at the
> time the computer was incapable of deleting records, to the shock of many
> observers. She later recanted, and said it would be rebuilt to delete
> records within six months.
>
> She recanted again, after Congressional outrage, and said records would be
> deleted quickly, as if her edicts could simply supplant statute (which
> required destruction). Ten sets of backups are deleted in sequence,
> according to an FBI spokesperson contacted at the SHOT Show, to protect the
> integrity of the system. The results of record checks performed outside the
> system, to foreign sources, are unclear. No audit trail is known, and the
> FBI, which runs the system, assures Congress and the public that it runs the
> system within the confines of the law. An insider has assured me this is
> true. The FBI had previously stated publicly that it keeps the records.
>
>
>
> Operational Style Generated Endless Criticism
>
> The Brady organization itself has been responsible for some of the most
> vicious and tasteless campaigns against the fundamental human right to self
> defense, and the civil right to keep and bear arms, in the history of the
> United States. Relying on "Rahm's Rule," named after Rahm Emanuel, now the
> mayor of Chicago, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."
>
> The group never fails to use criminal actions for leverage in its endless
> attempts to disarm everyone who had nothing to do with the evil acts. It has
> become their trademark tactic, lapped up by a cooperative media that, based
> solely on a review of the coverage they give, largely shares their
> anti-gun-rights views.
>
> The Brady group has been characterized by the late civil-rights champion
> Neal Knox as always "dancing in the blood of victims." When a deranged
> individual or prescription-drug crazed madman commits an atrocity, gun
> owners prepare themselves for an assault, invariably led by the Bradys and
> their allies, lasting for days on end, aimed at everyone who had nothing to
> do with the event.
>
> Even a single murderous attack seemingly anywhere in the nation, is now
> broadcast repeatedly thousands of miles away, and often years later, thanks
> to the group's tremendous influence, and used as an argument for reducing
> the public's right to keep and bear arms. Pictures of the evil perpetrator,
> which ought to be downplayed, are instead beamed into American homes,
> prompting some to cynically refer to the group as the Brady Center for the
> Promotion of Gun Violence.
>
> In contrast, the good that guns do, saving lives, preventing crime, keeping
> America free, and as a sport significantly bigger than golf, gets extremely
> little attention in what passes for news these days. Thirteen scholarly
> studies show between 700,000 and 2.5 million defensive gun uses every year,
> but you would hardly know it if the Brady group was your source of
> information.
>
>
>
>
> Sarah Brady was not reached for comment. As she has aged, and the group has
> matured, her activity with the organization has reportedly decreased.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
advocates had better begin a campaign for the right to bear
drones....and tanks....and nukes.
Why do these gun worshipers insist that Violence Begets Peace?
"And God said, let there be guns. And there were. And He looked upon
them and said, when the last shot is fired, there shall be ever
lasting peace. And so it came to pass."
Carl Jarvis
Carl Jarvis
On 12/29/14, ted chittenden <tchittenden@cox.net> wrote:
> Hi to all.
>
> I was having some trouble sleeping last night so I turned on my radio and
> began dialing around. Our part liberal talk/part CBS Sports station was
> carrying Gary Sullivan doing a show on home improvement. The financial guru
> with a personality cult, Dave Ramsey, was on KTAR-FM. I then went to the
> Salem-owned conservative talk outlet, KKNT-AM, and heard, for the first
> time, the show Armed American Radio. The guest when I tuned in was Alan
> Korwin, a pro-gun writer. I stayed to listen, mainly because of Mr. Korwin's
> attacks on Thom Hartmann. And I'm glad I did! Near the end of the interview,
> Mr. Korwin made the following statement:
>
> "when you pick up your firearm, feel the freedom that it brings."
>
> Holding a firearm may give you a sense of power; a sense of control; and,
> possibly, a sense of conquest. But I do not believe it gives one a sense of
> freedom unless you define freedom as seeking power, control, and the
> conquest of others. And sadly, some people seek just that.
>
> Anyway, Mr. Korwin gave his website address at the end of his interview:
>
> http://www.gunlaws.com
>
> and his page 139 blog commentaries. This morning, I decided to take a look
> at Mr. Korwin's blog, and it is as radical a gun rights blog as you could
> wish. I'm going to place the text of Blog Post page 139, #39, below my
> signature, and below its actual web address. This post on the passing of
> James Brady (the press secretary who was wounded when John Hinckley tried to
> shoot President Ronald Reagan in 1981) shows how radically dangerous some of
> these pro-gun rights advocates have become.
> --
> Ted Chittenden
>
> Every story has at least two sides if not more.
> ----
> http://www.gunlaws.com/Page9Folder100up/PageNine-139.htm
> PAGE NINE No. 139
>
>
> August 6, 2014
>
> "Brady Bill" Namesake James Brady Dies at Age 73
>
> National Media Glorifies Him But Gets Story Wrong
>
>
> Attacks on the Civil Right to Arms to Continue Unabated
>
> Criminal acts still cleverly used as leverage to disarm the innocent
>
> Sarah, not Jim, the real force behind the anti-rights movement
>
>
> by Alan Korwin, Author
> Gun Laws of America
> GunLaws.com
> Aug. 6, 2014
>
>
>
>
> "There's no way to tell if you're on
> the Brady rights-denied list, (the "NICS Index")
> and attempting to buy a firearm
> if you're on the government list is a felony.
> Attempting to find out if you're on the list is a crime."
>
>
>
>
>
> James Brady, the White House Press Secretary under President Ronald Reagan
> has died. He was 73. He is being credited with "stunning successes" in the
> "gun-control" efforts in America.
>
> Brady had been shot in the head with a .22 caliber revolver during an
> assassination attempt on president Reagan in 1981, and was severely
> incapacitated by the injury. Confined to a wheel chair for the balance of
> his life, in constant pain and speaking only with extreme difficulty, his
> ambitious and attractive young wife Sarah was understandably horrified and
> reportedly turned bitter by the life-changing tragedy. Their world had
> turned upside down.
>
> Continuing a long tradition of spinning gun-related news to fit a set of
> beliefs instead of conformance with the facts, the "news" media is
> portraying James Brady as the moving force behind what is now the Brady
> Center for the Prevention of Gun Violence, formerly the Brady Campaign to
> Prevent Gun Violence, formerly the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence Allied
> with The Million Moms March, formerly the Center to Prevent Handgun
> Violence, formerly Handgun Control, Inc., formerly the National Council to
> Ban Handguns.
>
>
>
> Jim Brady Never Ran The Brady Group
>
> His wife Sarah however was the public face and driving force of the
> anti-gun-rights movement the entire time, which is common knowledge to
> everyone in the field. Husband Jim was wheeled out infrequently at selected
> events, often to thunderous applause, where he would wave weakly,
> occasionally say a few garbled words, and leave the rest of the activity to
> his wife and others. He was incapable of much else due to the unfortunate
> tragedy he endured.
>
> The Brady Bill, technically The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act,
> eventually took control of every firearm sold at retail in America, not just
> handguns as originally promoted, thanks to a little noticed portion that
> took effect automatically in 1998 -- five years after Congress voted to pass
> the bill in 1993. Delayed passage of unexpected, controversial or unpopular
> provisions of law is a questionable practice, according to leading experts.
> It caught most gun owners by complete surprise.
>
>
>
> Five-Day "Cooling Off" Period Was Promo, Not Real
>
> The much vaunted five-day waiting (or "cooling off") period, promoted by the
> "news" media as the reason for passing the bill, was never a significant
> part of even the handgun law, never part of the all-firearms bill, and is
> not part of the bill now.
>
> It was basically used as feel-good leverage to pass the bill for those who
> didn't read it, and for media promotion. Many people still believe there is
> a five-day waiting period in the law, even though there isn't now and
> effectively never was. The "news" media has done little or nothing to
> clarify the point, leaving the public with the same false impression, 21
> years later. But it feels good, according to some with inside knowledge of
> the situation.
>
> Some states have enacted their own waiting periods of differing lengths and
> conditions. The 'holy grail' of waiting periods, a long sought after goal of
> anti-gun-rights activists, has been largely abandoned, left on the dust heap
> of history. It eventually became obvious, even to die-hard activists, that
> it was illogical to sell guns to the furiously angry, and then hope they
> remain calm for the rest of their lives after a five-day wait to get armed.
> http://www.gunlaws.com/WaitingPeriodsEssay.htm
>
>
>
> Rights Denied With No Due Process
>
> Although "news" reports are literally promoting a factoid, presented with no
> corroboration, that the Brady bill has prevented two million gun transfers
> from taking place, there is no evidence that the bill has prevented any
> criminals from arming themselves. Disarming criminals is the stated goal of
> the bill.
>
> In fact, gangs and criminals in America are known to be heavily armed
> despite every law on the books banning such activity. In that sense, the
> Brady bill is an abject failure, but at least it is enormously expensive,
> diverts scarce resources from other desperately needed uses, impacts every
> innocent person who shops for firearms, and provides massive employment for
> law-enforcement officials and the NICS background-check center in West
> Virginia. None of these points made any "news" reports.
>
> What the two-million figure actually represents, assuming the number is
> correct, is people denied their fundamental civil and human right to obtain
> firearms -- without due process, a court hearing, submission of evidence,
> representation of counsel, or a decent appeals process. In fairness though,
> there is an administrative process that leads to frequent reversals due to
> bad records, name similarities and plain old government snafus, unmentioned
> in "news" accounts. How many should truly be denied firearms for cause is
> unknown, uninvestigated and unquestioned, except here.
>
> In other words, the public's "specific, enumerated right" (District of
> Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 628 n.27 (2008) to keep and bear arms,
> gets banned under the Brady bill by bureaucrats and a computer terminal,
> without immediate or easy redress.
>
> There is no way to tell if you are on the Brady gun-rights-denied list,
> (technically, the "NICS Index") and attempting to exercise your rights and
> buy a firearm if you are on the government list is a felony. Attempting to
> find out if you're on the list is a crime. The Brady system is, by design,
> tyrannical.
>
> The alternative BIDS system, at 90% less cost, would accomplish the same
> Brady-like purpose of preventing criminals from buying firearms at retail
> and paying sales tax, yet would not infringe on the innocent, but has gotten
> a cold shoulder from officials, for reasons that were unclear at press
> time.
>
> http://www.gunlaws.com/BIDSvNICS.htm.
>
> Using the BIDS approach (Blind Identification System), the list of
> prohibited possessors is made available, encrypted and password protected,
> to federally licensed dealers, who can look up prospective buyers, similar
> to wanted posters, to prevent sales to undesirables, while keeping the names
> of the innocent out of government hands. The need for huge federal employee
> banks and overhead is eliminated entirely.
>
> How many of the two million prevented transfers were real criminals trying
> to buy guns who should be arrested for it? That's been studied. Virtually
> none, at astronomical cost, it's easily googled (a NICS stop is insufficient
> grounds to dispatch law enforcement, and virtually never "grounds for
> successful prosecution," Translation: a hard-enough crime has not been
> committed). This is the "success" the media splashes in our faces. For
> shame.
>
>
> Brady Gave FBI Centralized Control Over The Public
>
> The main tangible result of the Brady bill was to authorize more than $250
> million initially, with unknown subsequent funding, for the FBI to build its
> long-desired centralized computer center in Clarksburg, W. Va., from which
> it could check out any American from a single location. With funding
> unavailable for years, the furor over "gun control" provided the final
> impetus to construct the huge campus that houses the NICS center that
> performs background checks on every new gun sold in America. Its other uses
> are a closely guarded secret.
>
> The FBI's NICS center is the largest retail-control system of any kind in
> the world, keeping tabs, in real time, of sales nationwide of a consumer
> product. It now handles an average of more than a million requests a month.
> See a diagram of how it works here:
> http://www.gunlaws.com/images/nicsbig.gif
>
> The system is capable of turning off gun sales nationally -- or regionally
> -- at the flip of a switch, and has done so repeatedly, on "a trial basis,"
> for "scheduled maintenance," and "unexpected outages," even during busy
> holiday-buying seasons, or during weekend gun shows, sometimes for days at a
> time. http://www.gunlaws.com/brady8day.htm. System up time has improved over
> the years.
>
>
>
> National Gun Registration System Can't Be Confirmed
>
> Although the Brady system isn't supposed to maintain a list of gun buyers,
> which is banned by federal law (FOPA, 1986, and the Brady bill itself),
> public confidence in this is low. When originally built, Janet Reno, the
> attorney general under whose authority it was constructed, claimed at the
> time the computer was incapable of deleting records, to the shock of many
> observers. She later recanted, and said it would be rebuilt to delete
> records within six months.
>
> She recanted again, after Congressional outrage, and said records would be
> deleted quickly, as if her edicts could simply supplant statute (which
> required destruction). Ten sets of backups are deleted in sequence,
> according to an FBI spokesperson contacted at the SHOT Show, to protect the
> integrity of the system. The results of record checks performed outside the
> system, to foreign sources, are unclear. No audit trail is known, and the
> FBI, which runs the system, assures Congress and the public that it runs the
> system within the confines of the law. An insider has assured me this is
> true. The FBI had previously stated publicly that it keeps the records.
>
>
>
> Operational Style Generated Endless Criticism
>
> The Brady organization itself has been responsible for some of the most
> vicious and tasteless campaigns against the fundamental human right to self
> defense, and the civil right to keep and bear arms, in the history of the
> United States. Relying on "Rahm's Rule," named after Rahm Emanuel, now the
> mayor of Chicago, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."
>
> The group never fails to use criminal actions for leverage in its endless
> attempts to disarm everyone who had nothing to do with the evil acts. It has
> become their trademark tactic, lapped up by a cooperative media that, based
> solely on a review of the coverage they give, largely shares their
> anti-gun-rights views.
>
> The Brady group has been characterized by the late civil-rights champion
> Neal Knox as always "dancing in the blood of victims." When a deranged
> individual or prescription-drug crazed madman commits an atrocity, gun
> owners prepare themselves for an assault, invariably led by the Bradys and
> their allies, lasting for days on end, aimed at everyone who had nothing to
> do with the event.
>
> Even a single murderous attack seemingly anywhere in the nation, is now
> broadcast repeatedly thousands of miles away, and often years later, thanks
> to the group's tremendous influence, and used as an argument for reducing
> the public's right to keep and bear arms. Pictures of the evil perpetrator,
> which ought to be downplayed, are instead beamed into American homes,
> prompting some to cynically refer to the group as the Brady Center for the
> Promotion of Gun Violence.
>
> In contrast, the good that guns do, saving lives, preventing crime, keeping
> America free, and as a sport significantly bigger than golf, gets extremely
> little attention in what passes for news these days. Thirteen scholarly
> studies show between 700,000 and 2.5 million defensive gun uses every year,
> but you would hardly know it if the Brady group was your source of
> information.
>
>
>
>
> Sarah Brady was not reached for comment. As she has aged, and the group has
> matured, her activity with the organization has reportedly decreased.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
Re: Tom Atchison, hand in hand with God
You're right, Alice. It isn't about religion, per say. It's about
the Human Imagination.
We humans go about living in Make Believe Worlds. Take our great
nation, the United States of America. Our imagination has put
together a nation of free people, living in peace and in the desire to
spread our wonderful, free life to all people of the Earth. We have
created documents, histories, folk tales, and tangible proof that we
are the most benevolent people ever to trod the planet. And we ignore
all which goes against that backdrop. We make excuses for the
violence, the bombings and murders of hundreds of thousands of people
whose only crime is that they are not one of us.
We even invent reasons why many of our own people protest our
wonderful nation, and spread lies about our beloved nation's actions.
We created Santa Claus, and other Fairies and Elves, who go about
giving gifts and granting wishes. And yes, we imagined a Great and
Perfect God, who comes with different names, to each culture. With no
proof other than our own say so, we created a history of this God.
And we go about living our lives in the belief that this all good God
is directing us. We point to the good deeds of some of the Faithful,
ignoring all of the generations of suffering brought about by other
people of our Faith, in their efforts to "convert" other nations, or
to use God to control their subjects, or to justify their own cruel
desires.
And we imagined that some of us are better than others. We built
upon this belief and established the Pecking Order, the Class System.
For much of our history, the very powerful were few in number, so they
invented myths that they were appointed by God to rule over the
masses. They enlisted the services of other people, through bribes
and favors, to keep the masses in place.
And the masses invented differences among themselves. In our present
world, we have created the Lower Class, the Working Class, the Middle
Class and the Upper Class. We decided that the way to determine each
person's place in this Pecking Order was to measure their material
wealth and the control it gave them over others.
I could go on, but enough is enough. It's all Fluff! We imagined it
all, and made it happen.
There is no God, no Santa Claus, no Tooth Fairy or Easter Rabbit.
There is no superior People. There are only People. There is only
one Earth upon which we can live. It is not a perfect planet. It
moans and groans and causes tidal waves and winds that blow down
forests. And it is not a perfect life. The big eat the little, the
strong defeat the weak, in this dog eat dog world.
We are frightened to admit that we are adrift in an unknowable
universe, on a speck of grit that could be blasted out of existence by
another wandering speck of grit. In my opinion, our only hope for the
continuance of our species and our world, as we know it, is to
confront our imaginary world and discard that which is imaginary, and
live with our planet, instead of trying to make it something it is
not.
But perhaps that is nothing more than my own wild imagination at work.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/28/14, Charles Krugman <ckrugman@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> and people wonder why I am an atheist.
> Chuck
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carl Jarvis
> Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2014 8:24 PM
> To: Blind Democracy Discussion List
> Subject: Tom Atchison, hand in hand with God
>
> Okay, so a con artist is a con artist whether disguised as a Wall
> Street Broker or clothed as a pastor.
> But for some reason I'm more disgusted with scum like Tom Atchison,
> the self styled Holy Man. If anyone could change my thinking, and
> bring me to a belief in the Hereafter, it would be Tom Atchison.
> I see a barren rock in Hades. Tom Atchison lies bound to a stone
> slab. One by one, each individual he cheated and bullied during his
> greedy, self serving years on Earth, steps forward and spats upon his
> naked body. And where their spittle lands, the flesh blisters and a
> horrid open sore bubbles up. Tom Atchison screams with the pain, as
> another spit ball strikes.
> But of course there is no Hereafter. Tom Atchison has been living a
> wonderful life off the misery of others. Dressed and behaving in a
> way that elicits trust from the down trodden.
> Forcing the poor and downcast to work for room and board, in order for
> him to stash away a fortune. Yes, Tom Atchison, a true example of
> Capitalism at its finest.
>
> Carl Jarvis
>
>
>
> On 12/28/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>>
>> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
>> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>> ________________________________________
>> AlterNet [1] / By Cliff Weathers [2]
>>
>> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>>
>>
>> December 2, 2014 |
>> The CEO of a Tampa Bay area charity has been exploiting homeless people
>> by
>> forcing them to work without pay to earn their food and shelter. And
>> while
>> the homeless men aren't compensated for their labor, the Christian
>> charity,
>> New Beginnings of Tampa, often is.
>> According to the Tampa Bay Times [3], the charity's CEO, Tom Atchison,
>> has
>> been farming out his residents as indentured servants to work at
>> concession
>> stands at local events, including state fairs, NASCAR races, Tampa Bay
>> Rays
>> baseball games, Bucs football games and Lightning hockey games.
>> The paper says that the men - many of them recovering addicts and
>> alcoholics
>> - are often asked to work food and beer concessions. The money earned
>> working there, the Times reports, goes directly to New Beginnings. In
>> total
>> it earned $932,816 in such income last year. Center Plate, the
>> concessions
>> operator for Tropicana Field says it's unaware that its concession stands
>> were staffed by homeless people.
>> Compensating labor with only food and shelter is nothing new; homeless
>> charities, like the Salvation Army, have been doing it for many years.
>> However, this practice requires charities to show that the workers are
>> being
>> compensated with services that are equal to what they'd earn with the
>> federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. But by his own admission,
>> Atchison does not document hours worked. Labor activists and homeless
>> advocates say that the residents are providing far too much work for what
>> they're given in return.
>> "It needs to stop," Lee Hoffman, a former resident told the Times. "There
>> are a bunch of homeless people who are being exploited."
>> In addition to working on labor crews, Atchison has had homeless people
>> work
>> in telemarketing, construction, landscaping, moving, and even grant
>> writing.
>> If a homeless person wishes not to participate in the labor program,
>> they're
>> charged $600 a month for meals and rent.
>> And while New Beginnings refers to this labor as "work therapy" critics
>> are
>> calling it illegal. Even worse, New Beginnings is a faith-based public
>> charity that gets public money to fund its operations. Atchison, an
>> erstwhile Pentecostal pastor (the paper could not verify his doctorate in
>> theology) is vying for the contract to operate Hillsborough County's
>> homeless program. The paper says that contract in Hillsborough County
>> (which
>> includes Tampa) will be worth millions.
>> The Times investigation, which included digging through police records
>> and
>> court records, bank statements and interviews with current and former
>> residents and employees, paints a picture of a shady operation.
>> Atchison is accused of absconding with Social Security checks and food
>> stamps belonging to residents, even if they were for more than residents
>> owed to the program. A contractor is also accusing New Beginnings of
>> overbilling the State of Florida some $80,000.
>> In addition, while part of the mission of New Beginnings is to provide
>> counseling to its residents, the paper found that the charity has nobody
>> on
>> staff that's trained to tend to those with mental illness and addiction
>> problems.
>> The sports news site Deadspin reports that the Lightning NHL hockey
>> franchise honored Atchison last year as "a community hero [4]."
>> See the video (below) of Atchison discussing New Beginnings of Tampa in
>> 2012.
>> [5]
>>
>> See more stories tagged with:
>> Faith based charities [6]
>> ________________________________________
>> Source URL:
>> http://www.alternet.org/homeless-people-forced-unpaid-labor-christian-pastor
>> Links:
>> [1] http://alternet.org
>> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/cliff-weathers
>> [3]
>> http://www.tampabay.com/news/specials/tampa-homeless-program-uses-unpaid-des
>> titute-residents-as-steady-labor/2208350
>> [4] http://lightning.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=656477
>> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor
>> Finds
>> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>> [6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/faith-based-charities
>> [7] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>>
>> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
>> Home > Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>>
>> AlterNet [1] / By Cliff Weathers [2]
>>
>> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>> December 2, 2014 |
>> The CEO of a Tampa Bay area charity has been exploiting homeless people
>> by
>> forcing them to work without pay to earn their food and shelter. And
>> while
>> the homeless men aren't compensated for their labor, the Christian
>> charity,
>> New Beginnings of Tampa, often is.
>> According to the Tampa Bay Times [3], the charity's CEO, Tom Atchison,
>> has
>> been farming out his residents as indentured servants to work at
>> concession
>> stands at local events, including state fairs, NASCAR races, Tampa Bay
>> Rays
>> baseball games, Bucs football games and Lightning hockey games.
>> The paper says that the men - many of them recovering addicts and
>> alcoholics
>> - are often asked to work food and beer concessions. The money earned
>> working there, the Times reports, goes directly to New Beginnings. In
>> total
>> it earned $932,816 in such income last year. Center Plate, the
>> concessions
>> operator for Tropicana Field says it's unaware that its concession stands
>> were staffed by homeless people.
>> Compensating labor with only food and shelter is nothing new; homeless
>> charities, like the Salvation Army, have been doing it for many years.
>> However, this practice requires charities to show that the workers are
>> being
>> compensated with services that are equal to what they'd earn with the
>> federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. But by his own admission,
>> Atchison does not document hours worked. Labor activists and homeless
>> advocates say that the residents are providing far too much work for what
>> they're given in return.
>> "It needs to stop," Lee Hoffman, a former resident told the Times. "There
>> are a bunch of homeless people who are being exploited."
>> In addition to working on labor crews, Atchison has had homeless people
>> work
>> in telemarketing, construction, landscaping, moving, and even grant
>> writing.
>> If a homeless person wishes not to participate in the labor program,
>> they're
>> charged $600 a month for meals and rent.
>> And while New Beginnings refers to this labor as "work therapy" critics
>> are
>> calling it illegal. Even worse, New Beginnings is a faith-based public
>> charity that gets public money to fund its operations. Atchison, an
>> erstwhile Pentecostal pastor (the paper could not verify his doctorate in
>> theology) is vying for the contract to operate Hillsborough County's
>> homeless program. The paper says that contract in Hillsborough County
>> (which
>> includes Tampa) will be worth millions.
>> The Times investigation, which included digging through police records
>> and
>> court records, bank statements and interviews with current and former
>> residents and employees, paints a picture of a shady operation.
>> Atchison is accused of absconding with Social Security checks and food
>> stamps belonging to residents, even if they were for more than residents
>> owed to the program. A contractor is also accusing New Beginnings of
>> overbilling the State of Florida some $80,000.
>> In addition, while part of the mission of New Beginnings is to provide
>> counseling to its residents, the paper found that the charity has nobody
>> on
>> staff that's trained to tend to those with mental illness and addiction
>> problems.
>> The sports news site Deadspin reports that the Lightning NHL hockey
>> franchise honored Atchison last year as "a community hero [4]."
>> See the video (below) of Atchison discussing New Beginnings of Tampa in
>> 2012.
>> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor Finds
>> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor Finds
>> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless[5]
>> See more stories tagged with:
>> Faith based charities [6]
>>
>> Source URL:
>> http://www.alternet.org/homeless-people-forced-unpaid-labor-christian-pastor
>>
>> Links:
>> [1] http://alternet.org
>> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/cliff-weathers
>> [3]
>> http://www.tampabay.com/news/specials/tampa-homeless-program-uses-unpaid-des
>> titute-residents-as-steady-labor/2208350
>> [4] http://lightning.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=656477
>> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor
>> Finds
>> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>> [6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/faith-based-charities
>> [7] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Blind-Democracy mailing list
>> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
>> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
the Human Imagination.
We humans go about living in Make Believe Worlds. Take our great
nation, the United States of America. Our imagination has put
together a nation of free people, living in peace and in the desire to
spread our wonderful, free life to all people of the Earth. We have
created documents, histories, folk tales, and tangible proof that we
are the most benevolent people ever to trod the planet. And we ignore
all which goes against that backdrop. We make excuses for the
violence, the bombings and murders of hundreds of thousands of people
whose only crime is that they are not one of us.
We even invent reasons why many of our own people protest our
wonderful nation, and spread lies about our beloved nation's actions.
We created Santa Claus, and other Fairies and Elves, who go about
giving gifts and granting wishes. And yes, we imagined a Great and
Perfect God, who comes with different names, to each culture. With no
proof other than our own say so, we created a history of this God.
And we go about living our lives in the belief that this all good God
is directing us. We point to the good deeds of some of the Faithful,
ignoring all of the generations of suffering brought about by other
people of our Faith, in their efforts to "convert" other nations, or
to use God to control their subjects, or to justify their own cruel
desires.
And we imagined that some of us are better than others. We built
upon this belief and established the Pecking Order, the Class System.
For much of our history, the very powerful were few in number, so they
invented myths that they were appointed by God to rule over the
masses. They enlisted the services of other people, through bribes
and favors, to keep the masses in place.
And the masses invented differences among themselves. In our present
world, we have created the Lower Class, the Working Class, the Middle
Class and the Upper Class. We decided that the way to determine each
person's place in this Pecking Order was to measure their material
wealth and the control it gave them over others.
I could go on, but enough is enough. It's all Fluff! We imagined it
all, and made it happen.
There is no God, no Santa Claus, no Tooth Fairy or Easter Rabbit.
There is no superior People. There are only People. There is only
one Earth upon which we can live. It is not a perfect planet. It
moans and groans and causes tidal waves and winds that blow down
forests. And it is not a perfect life. The big eat the little, the
strong defeat the weak, in this dog eat dog world.
We are frightened to admit that we are adrift in an unknowable
universe, on a speck of grit that could be blasted out of existence by
another wandering speck of grit. In my opinion, our only hope for the
continuance of our species and our world, as we know it, is to
confront our imaginary world and discard that which is imaginary, and
live with our planet, instead of trying to make it something it is
not.
But perhaps that is nothing more than my own wild imagination at work.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/28/14, Charles Krugman <ckrugman@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> and people wonder why I am an atheist.
> Chuck
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carl Jarvis
> Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2014 8:24 PM
> To: Blind Democracy Discussion List
> Subject: Tom Atchison, hand in hand with God
>
> Okay, so a con artist is a con artist whether disguised as a Wall
> Street Broker or clothed as a pastor.
> But for some reason I'm more disgusted with scum like Tom Atchison,
> the self styled Holy Man. If anyone could change my thinking, and
> bring me to a belief in the Hereafter, it would be Tom Atchison.
> I see a barren rock in Hades. Tom Atchison lies bound to a stone
> slab. One by one, each individual he cheated and bullied during his
> greedy, self serving years on Earth, steps forward and spats upon his
> naked body. And where their spittle lands, the flesh blisters and a
> horrid open sore bubbles up. Tom Atchison screams with the pain, as
> another spit ball strikes.
> But of course there is no Hereafter. Tom Atchison has been living a
> wonderful life off the misery of others. Dressed and behaving in a
> way that elicits trust from the down trodden.
> Forcing the poor and downcast to work for room and board, in order for
> him to stash away a fortune. Yes, Tom Atchison, a true example of
> Capitalism at its finest.
>
> Carl Jarvis
>
>
>
> On 12/28/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>>
>> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
>> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>> ________________________________________
>> AlterNet [1] / By Cliff Weathers [2]
>>
>> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>>
>>
>> December 2, 2014 |
>> The CEO of a Tampa Bay area charity has been exploiting homeless people
>> by
>> forcing them to work without pay to earn their food and shelter. And
>> while
>> the homeless men aren't compensated for their labor, the Christian
>> charity,
>> New Beginnings of Tampa, often is.
>> According to the Tampa Bay Times [3], the charity's CEO, Tom Atchison,
>> has
>> been farming out his residents as indentured servants to work at
>> concession
>> stands at local events, including state fairs, NASCAR races, Tampa Bay
>> Rays
>> baseball games, Bucs football games and Lightning hockey games.
>> The paper says that the men - many of them recovering addicts and
>> alcoholics
>> - are often asked to work food and beer concessions. The money earned
>> working there, the Times reports, goes directly to New Beginnings. In
>> total
>> it earned $932,816 in such income last year. Center Plate, the
>> concessions
>> operator for Tropicana Field says it's unaware that its concession stands
>> were staffed by homeless people.
>> Compensating labor with only food and shelter is nothing new; homeless
>> charities, like the Salvation Army, have been doing it for many years.
>> However, this practice requires charities to show that the workers are
>> being
>> compensated with services that are equal to what they'd earn with the
>> federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. But by his own admission,
>> Atchison does not document hours worked. Labor activists and homeless
>> advocates say that the residents are providing far too much work for what
>> they're given in return.
>> "It needs to stop," Lee Hoffman, a former resident told the Times. "There
>> are a bunch of homeless people who are being exploited."
>> In addition to working on labor crews, Atchison has had homeless people
>> work
>> in telemarketing, construction, landscaping, moving, and even grant
>> writing.
>> If a homeless person wishes not to participate in the labor program,
>> they're
>> charged $600 a month for meals and rent.
>> And while New Beginnings refers to this labor as "work therapy" critics
>> are
>> calling it illegal. Even worse, New Beginnings is a faith-based public
>> charity that gets public money to fund its operations. Atchison, an
>> erstwhile Pentecostal pastor (the paper could not verify his doctorate in
>> theology) is vying for the contract to operate Hillsborough County's
>> homeless program. The paper says that contract in Hillsborough County
>> (which
>> includes Tampa) will be worth millions.
>> The Times investigation, which included digging through police records
>> and
>> court records, bank statements and interviews with current and former
>> residents and employees, paints a picture of a shady operation.
>> Atchison is accused of absconding with Social Security checks and food
>> stamps belonging to residents, even if they were for more than residents
>> owed to the program. A contractor is also accusing New Beginnings of
>> overbilling the State of Florida some $80,000.
>> In addition, while part of the mission of New Beginnings is to provide
>> counseling to its residents, the paper found that the charity has nobody
>> on
>> staff that's trained to tend to those with mental illness and addiction
>> problems.
>> The sports news site Deadspin reports that the Lightning NHL hockey
>> franchise honored Atchison last year as "a community hero [4]."
>> See the video (below) of Atchison discussing New Beginnings of Tampa in
>> 2012.
>> [5]
>>
>> See more stories tagged with:
>> Faith based charities [6]
>> ________________________________________
>> Source URL:
>> http://www.alternet.org/homeless-people-forced-unpaid-labor-christian-pastor
>> Links:
>> [1] http://alternet.org
>> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/cliff-weathers
>> [3]
>> http://www.tampabay.com/news/specials/tampa-homeless-program-uses-unpaid-des
>> titute-residents-as-steady-labor/2208350
>> [4] http://lightning.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=656477
>> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor
>> Finds
>> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>> [6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/faith-based-charities
>> [7] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>>
>> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
>> Home > Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>>
>> AlterNet [1] / By Cliff Weathers [2]
>>
>> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>> December 2, 2014 |
>> The CEO of a Tampa Bay area charity has been exploiting homeless people
>> by
>> forcing them to work without pay to earn their food and shelter. And
>> while
>> the homeless men aren't compensated for their labor, the Christian
>> charity,
>> New Beginnings of Tampa, often is.
>> According to the Tampa Bay Times [3], the charity's CEO, Tom Atchison,
>> has
>> been farming out his residents as indentured servants to work at
>> concession
>> stands at local events, including state fairs, NASCAR races, Tampa Bay
>> Rays
>> baseball games, Bucs football games and Lightning hockey games.
>> The paper says that the men - many of them recovering addicts and
>> alcoholics
>> - are often asked to work food and beer concessions. The money earned
>> working there, the Times reports, goes directly to New Beginnings. In
>> total
>> it earned $932,816 in such income last year. Center Plate, the
>> concessions
>> operator for Tropicana Field says it's unaware that its concession stands
>> were staffed by homeless people.
>> Compensating labor with only food and shelter is nothing new; homeless
>> charities, like the Salvation Army, have been doing it for many years.
>> However, this practice requires charities to show that the workers are
>> being
>> compensated with services that are equal to what they'd earn with the
>> federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. But by his own admission,
>> Atchison does not document hours worked. Labor activists and homeless
>> advocates say that the residents are providing far too much work for what
>> they're given in return.
>> "It needs to stop," Lee Hoffman, a former resident told the Times. "There
>> are a bunch of homeless people who are being exploited."
>> In addition to working on labor crews, Atchison has had homeless people
>> work
>> in telemarketing, construction, landscaping, moving, and even grant
>> writing.
>> If a homeless person wishes not to participate in the labor program,
>> they're
>> charged $600 a month for meals and rent.
>> And while New Beginnings refers to this labor as "work therapy" critics
>> are
>> calling it illegal. Even worse, New Beginnings is a faith-based public
>> charity that gets public money to fund its operations. Atchison, an
>> erstwhile Pentecostal pastor (the paper could not verify his doctorate in
>> theology) is vying for the contract to operate Hillsborough County's
>> homeless program. The paper says that contract in Hillsborough County
>> (which
>> includes Tampa) will be worth millions.
>> The Times investigation, which included digging through police records
>> and
>> court records, bank statements and interviews with current and former
>> residents and employees, paints a picture of a shady operation.
>> Atchison is accused of absconding with Social Security checks and food
>> stamps belonging to residents, even if they were for more than residents
>> owed to the program. A contractor is also accusing New Beginnings of
>> overbilling the State of Florida some $80,000.
>> In addition, while part of the mission of New Beginnings is to provide
>> counseling to its residents, the paper found that the charity has nobody
>> on
>> staff that's trained to tend to those with mental illness and addiction
>> problems.
>> The sports news site Deadspin reports that the Lightning NHL hockey
>> franchise honored Atchison last year as "a community hero [4]."
>> See the video (below) of Atchison discussing New Beginnings of Tampa in
>> 2012.
>> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor Finds
>> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor Finds
>> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless[5]
>> See more stories tagged with:
>> Faith based charities [6]
>>
>> Source URL:
>> http://www.alternet.org/homeless-people-forced-unpaid-labor-christian-pastor
>>
>> Links:
>> [1] http://alternet.org
>> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/cliff-weathers
>> [3]
>> http://www.tampabay.com/news/specials/tampa-homeless-program-uses-unpaid-des
>> titute-residents-as-steady-labor/2208350
>> [4] http://lightning.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=656477
>> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor
>> Finds
>> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>> [6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/faith-based-charities
>> [7] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Blind-Democracy mailing list
>> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
>> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Tom Atchison, hand in hand with God
Okay, so a con artist is a con artist whether disguised as a Wall
Street Broker or clothed as a pastor.
But for some reason I'm more disgusted with scum like Tom Atchison,
the self styled Holy Man. If anyone could change my thinking, and
bring me to a belief in the Hereafter, it would be Tom Atchison.
I see a barren rock in Hades. Tom Atchison lies bound to a stone
slab. One by one, each individual he cheated and bullied during his
greedy, self serving years on Earth, steps forward and spats upon his
naked body. And where their spittle lands, the flesh blisters and a
horrid open sore bubbles up. Tom Atchison screams with the pain, as
another spit ball strikes.
But of course there is no Hereafter. Tom Atchison has been living a
wonderful life off the misery of others. Dressed and behaving in a
way that elicits trust from the down trodden.
Forcing the poor and downcast to work for room and board, in order for
him to stash away a fortune. Yes, Tom Atchison, a true example of
Capitalism at its finest.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/28/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> ________________________________________
> AlterNet [1] / By Cliff Weathers [2]
>
> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>
>
> December 2, 2014 |
> The CEO of a Tampa Bay area charity has been exploiting homeless people by
> forcing them to work without pay to earn their food and shelter. And while
> the homeless men aren't compensated for their labor, the Christian charity,
> New Beginnings of Tampa, often is.
> According to the Tampa Bay Times [3], the charity's CEO, Tom Atchison, has
> been farming out his residents as indentured servants to work at concession
> stands at local events, including state fairs, NASCAR races, Tampa Bay Rays
> baseball games, Bucs football games and Lightning hockey games.
> The paper says that the men - many of them recovering addicts and
> alcoholics
> - are often asked to work food and beer concessions. The money earned
> working there, the Times reports, goes directly to New Beginnings. In total
> it earned $932,816 in such income last year. Center Plate, the concessions
> operator for Tropicana Field says it's unaware that its concession stands
> were staffed by homeless people.
> Compensating labor with only food and shelter is nothing new; homeless
> charities, like the Salvation Army, have been doing it for many years.
> However, this practice requires charities to show that the workers are
> being
> compensated with services that are equal to what they'd earn with the
> federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. But by his own admission,
> Atchison does not document hours worked. Labor activists and homeless
> advocates say that the residents are providing far too much work for what
> they're given in return.
> "It needs to stop," Lee Hoffman, a former resident told the Times. "There
> are a bunch of homeless people who are being exploited."
> In addition to working on labor crews, Atchison has had homeless people
> work
> in telemarketing, construction, landscaping, moving, and even grant
> writing.
> If a homeless person wishes not to participate in the labor program,
> they're
> charged $600 a month for meals and rent.
> And while New Beginnings refers to this labor as "work therapy" critics are
> calling it illegal. Even worse, New Beginnings is a faith-based public
> charity that gets public money to fund its operations. Atchison, an
> erstwhile Pentecostal pastor (the paper could not verify his doctorate in
> theology) is vying for the contract to operate Hillsborough County's
> homeless program. The paper says that contract in Hillsborough County
> (which
> includes Tampa) will be worth millions.
> The Times investigation, which included digging through police records and
> court records, bank statements and interviews with current and former
> residents and employees, paints a picture of a shady operation.
> Atchison is accused of absconding with Social Security checks and food
> stamps belonging to residents, even if they were for more than residents
> owed to the program. A contractor is also accusing New Beginnings of
> overbilling the State of Florida some $80,000.
> In addition, while part of the mission of New Beginnings is to provide
> counseling to its residents, the paper found that the charity has nobody on
> staff that's trained to tend to those with mental illness and addiction
> problems.
> The sports news site Deadspin reports that the Lightning NHL hockey
> franchise honored Atchison last year as "a community hero [4]."
> See the video (below) of Atchison discussing New Beginnings of Tampa in
> 2012.
> [5]
>
> See more stories tagged with:
> Faith based charities [6]
> ________________________________________
> Source URL:
> http://www.alternet.org/homeless-people-forced-unpaid-labor-christian-pastor
> Links:
> [1] http://alternet.org
> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/cliff-weathers
> [3]
> http://www.tampabay.com/news/specials/tampa-homeless-program-uses-unpaid-des
> titute-residents-as-steady-labor/2208350
> [4] http://lightning.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=656477
> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor Finds
> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> [6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/faith-based-charities
> [7] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Home > Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>
> AlterNet [1] / By Cliff Weathers [2]
>
> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> December 2, 2014 |
> The CEO of a Tampa Bay area charity has been exploiting homeless people by
> forcing them to work without pay to earn their food and shelter. And while
> the homeless men aren't compensated for their labor, the Christian charity,
> New Beginnings of Tampa, often is.
> According to the Tampa Bay Times [3], the charity's CEO, Tom Atchison, has
> been farming out his residents as indentured servants to work at concession
> stands at local events, including state fairs, NASCAR races, Tampa Bay Rays
> baseball games, Bucs football games and Lightning hockey games.
> The paper says that the men - many of them recovering addicts and
> alcoholics
> - are often asked to work food and beer concessions. The money earned
> working there, the Times reports, goes directly to New Beginnings. In total
> it earned $932,816 in such income last year. Center Plate, the concessions
> operator for Tropicana Field says it's unaware that its concession stands
> were staffed by homeless people.
> Compensating labor with only food and shelter is nothing new; homeless
> charities, like the Salvation Army, have been doing it for many years.
> However, this practice requires charities to show that the workers are
> being
> compensated with services that are equal to what they'd earn with the
> federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. But by his own admission,
> Atchison does not document hours worked. Labor activists and homeless
> advocates say that the residents are providing far too much work for what
> they're given in return.
> "It needs to stop," Lee Hoffman, a former resident told the Times. "There
> are a bunch of homeless people who are being exploited."
> In addition to working on labor crews, Atchison has had homeless people
> work
> in telemarketing, construction, landscaping, moving, and even grant
> writing.
> If a homeless person wishes not to participate in the labor program,
> they're
> charged $600 a month for meals and rent.
> And while New Beginnings refers to this labor as "work therapy" critics are
> calling it illegal. Even worse, New Beginnings is a faith-based public
> charity that gets public money to fund its operations. Atchison, an
> erstwhile Pentecostal pastor (the paper could not verify his doctorate in
> theology) is vying for the contract to operate Hillsborough County's
> homeless program. The paper says that contract in Hillsborough County
> (which
> includes Tampa) will be worth millions.
> The Times investigation, which included digging through police records and
> court records, bank statements and interviews with current and former
> residents and employees, paints a picture of a shady operation.
> Atchison is accused of absconding with Social Security checks and food
> stamps belonging to residents, even if they were for more than residents
> owed to the program. A contractor is also accusing New Beginnings of
> overbilling the State of Florida some $80,000.
> In addition, while part of the mission of New Beginnings is to provide
> counseling to its residents, the paper found that the charity has nobody on
> staff that's trained to tend to those with mental illness and addiction
> problems.
> The sports news site Deadspin reports that the Lightning NHL hockey
> franchise honored Atchison last year as "a community hero [4]."
> See the video (below) of Atchison discussing New Beginnings of Tampa in
> 2012.
> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor Finds
> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor Finds
> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless[5]
> See more stories tagged with:
> Faith based charities [6]
>
> Source URL:
> http://www.alternet.org/homeless-people-forced-unpaid-labor-christian-pastor
>
> Links:
> [1] http://alternet.org
> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/cliff-weathers
> [3]
> http://www.tampabay.com/news/specials/tampa-homeless-program-uses-unpaid-des
> titute-residents-as-steady-labor/2208350
> [4] http://lightning.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=656477
> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor Finds
> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> [6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/faith-based-charities
> [7] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
Street Broker or clothed as a pastor.
But for some reason I'm more disgusted with scum like Tom Atchison,
the self styled Holy Man. If anyone could change my thinking, and
bring me to a belief in the Hereafter, it would be Tom Atchison.
I see a barren rock in Hades. Tom Atchison lies bound to a stone
slab. One by one, each individual he cheated and bullied during his
greedy, self serving years on Earth, steps forward and spats upon his
naked body. And where their spittle lands, the flesh blisters and a
horrid open sore bubbles up. Tom Atchison screams with the pain, as
another spit ball strikes.
But of course there is no Hereafter. Tom Atchison has been living a
wonderful life off the misery of others. Dressed and behaving in a
way that elicits trust from the down trodden.
Forcing the poor and downcast to work for room and board, in order for
him to stash away a fortune. Yes, Tom Atchison, a true example of
Capitalism at its finest.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/28/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> ________________________________________
> AlterNet [1] / By Cliff Weathers [2]
>
> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>
>
> December 2, 2014 |
> The CEO of a Tampa Bay area charity has been exploiting homeless people by
> forcing them to work without pay to earn their food and shelter. And while
> the homeless men aren't compensated for their labor, the Christian charity,
> New Beginnings of Tampa, often is.
> According to the Tampa Bay Times [3], the charity's CEO, Tom Atchison, has
> been farming out his residents as indentured servants to work at concession
> stands at local events, including state fairs, NASCAR races, Tampa Bay Rays
> baseball games, Bucs football games and Lightning hockey games.
> The paper says that the men - many of them recovering addicts and
> alcoholics
> - are often asked to work food and beer concessions. The money earned
> working there, the Times reports, goes directly to New Beginnings. In total
> it earned $932,816 in such income last year. Center Plate, the concessions
> operator for Tropicana Field says it's unaware that its concession stands
> were staffed by homeless people.
> Compensating labor with only food and shelter is nothing new; homeless
> charities, like the Salvation Army, have been doing it for many years.
> However, this practice requires charities to show that the workers are
> being
> compensated with services that are equal to what they'd earn with the
> federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. But by his own admission,
> Atchison does not document hours worked. Labor activists and homeless
> advocates say that the residents are providing far too much work for what
> they're given in return.
> "It needs to stop," Lee Hoffman, a former resident told the Times. "There
> are a bunch of homeless people who are being exploited."
> In addition to working on labor crews, Atchison has had homeless people
> work
> in telemarketing, construction, landscaping, moving, and even grant
> writing.
> If a homeless person wishes not to participate in the labor program,
> they're
> charged $600 a month for meals and rent.
> And while New Beginnings refers to this labor as "work therapy" critics are
> calling it illegal. Even worse, New Beginnings is a faith-based public
> charity that gets public money to fund its operations. Atchison, an
> erstwhile Pentecostal pastor (the paper could not verify his doctorate in
> theology) is vying for the contract to operate Hillsborough County's
> homeless program. The paper says that contract in Hillsborough County
> (which
> includes Tampa) will be worth millions.
> The Times investigation, which included digging through police records and
> court records, bank statements and interviews with current and former
> residents and employees, paints a picture of a shady operation.
> Atchison is accused of absconding with Social Security checks and food
> stamps belonging to residents, even if they were for more than residents
> owed to the program. A contractor is also accusing New Beginnings of
> overbilling the State of Florida some $80,000.
> In addition, while part of the mission of New Beginnings is to provide
> counseling to its residents, the paper found that the charity has nobody on
> staff that's trained to tend to those with mental illness and addiction
> problems.
> The sports news site Deadspin reports that the Lightning NHL hockey
> franchise honored Atchison last year as "a community hero [4]."
> See the video (below) of Atchison discussing New Beginnings of Tampa in
> 2012.
> [5]
>
> See more stories tagged with:
> Faith based charities [6]
> ________________________________________
> Source URL:
> http://www.alternet.org/homeless-people-forced-unpaid-labor-christian-pastor
> Links:
> [1] http://alternet.org
> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/cliff-weathers
> [3]
> http://www.tampabay.com/news/specials/tampa-homeless-program-uses-unpaid-des
> titute-residents-as-steady-labor/2208350
> [4] http://lightning.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=656477
> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor Finds
> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> [6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/faith-based-charities
> [7] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Home > Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>
> AlterNet [1] / By Cliff Weathers [2]
>
> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> December 2, 2014 |
> The CEO of a Tampa Bay area charity has been exploiting homeless people by
> forcing them to work without pay to earn their food and shelter. And while
> the homeless men aren't compensated for their labor, the Christian charity,
> New Beginnings of Tampa, often is.
> According to the Tampa Bay Times [3], the charity's CEO, Tom Atchison, has
> been farming out his residents as indentured servants to work at concession
> stands at local events, including state fairs, NASCAR races, Tampa Bay Rays
> baseball games, Bucs football games and Lightning hockey games.
> The paper says that the men - many of them recovering addicts and
> alcoholics
> - are often asked to work food and beer concessions. The money earned
> working there, the Times reports, goes directly to New Beginnings. In total
> it earned $932,816 in such income last year. Center Plate, the concessions
> operator for Tropicana Field says it's unaware that its concession stands
> were staffed by homeless people.
> Compensating labor with only food and shelter is nothing new; homeless
> charities, like the Salvation Army, have been doing it for many years.
> However, this practice requires charities to show that the workers are
> being
> compensated with services that are equal to what they'd earn with the
> federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. But by his own admission,
> Atchison does not document hours worked. Labor activists and homeless
> advocates say that the residents are providing far too much work for what
> they're given in return.
> "It needs to stop," Lee Hoffman, a former resident told the Times. "There
> are a bunch of homeless people who are being exploited."
> In addition to working on labor crews, Atchison has had homeless people
> work
> in telemarketing, construction, landscaping, moving, and even grant
> writing.
> If a homeless person wishes not to participate in the labor program,
> they're
> charged $600 a month for meals and rent.
> And while New Beginnings refers to this labor as "work therapy" critics are
> calling it illegal. Even worse, New Beginnings is a faith-based public
> charity that gets public money to fund its operations. Atchison, an
> erstwhile Pentecostal pastor (the paper could not verify his doctorate in
> theology) is vying for the contract to operate Hillsborough County's
> homeless program. The paper says that contract in Hillsborough County
> (which
> includes Tampa) will be worth millions.
> The Times investigation, which included digging through police records and
> court records, bank statements and interviews with current and former
> residents and employees, paints a picture of a shady operation.
> Atchison is accused of absconding with Social Security checks and food
> stamps belonging to residents, even if they were for more than residents
> owed to the program. A contractor is also accusing New Beginnings of
> overbilling the State of Florida some $80,000.
> In addition, while part of the mission of New Beginnings is to provide
> counseling to its residents, the paper found that the charity has nobody on
> staff that's trained to tend to those with mental illness and addiction
> problems.
> The sports news site Deadspin reports that the Lightning NHL hockey
> franchise honored Atchison last year as "a community hero [4]."
> See the video (below) of Atchison discussing New Beginnings of Tampa in
> 2012.
> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor Finds
> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor Finds
> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless[5]
> See more stories tagged with:
> Faith based charities [6]
>
> Source URL:
> http://www.alternet.org/homeless-people-forced-unpaid-labor-christian-pastor
>
> Links:
> [1] http://alternet.org
> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/cliff-weathers
> [3]
> http://www.tampabay.com/news/specials/tampa-homeless-program-uses-unpaid-des
> titute-residents-as-steady-labor/2208350
> [4] http://lightning.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=656477
> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor Finds
> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
> [6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/faith-based-charities
> [7] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)