Nice points ... too bad Jesus ain't comin' back! He learned the first time, for many of the reasons you point out, that it just ain't gonna be woith it! Especially with the lunatic Cecil B. De Mel Gibson giving everyone an extended training film on what is supposed to happen when Jesus returns, inuring them with images of blood and gore and suffering and the like ... even though they -- the Xtian faithful -- seem to want to decry and empathise with the "Saviour," the ONLY way they can regurgitate their ardour and amour through their belief systems is to have the poor fellow suffering and trudging under the weight of a couple big hunks of wood. This is something that has been ingrained in their minds for millennia, the image of their "Christ" having his hands and feet impaled on the the Cross, just hanging their in eternal suffering and pain. Again, the only way they can be inspired to mercy and love and all of that is by having their subject of devotion in the most distressing of situations.

The consistent theme -- especially with De Mel's flic -- is they will have to get their Jew over and over and over again for ever and ever and ever in

As we enter another Easter Season, it's become all too obvious that if Christ returns, those who hate in his name will slime him, then kill him.

Christ was a long-haired peace activist who would have been sickened to his soul by the war in Iraq.  "Blessed are the peacemakers"  Jesus said in his defining Sermon on the Mount.  "Turn the other cheek...Love thy neighbor."

Such hippie-radical ideals are the "Christian" right wing's worst nightmare.  The GOP would never tolerate an upstart like Jesus gathering a following in the face of their corporate-fundamentalist crusade.  These are self-proclaimed Christians who love power but would despise the actual Christ, just as they love a Zionist Israel but believe  actual Jews are doomed to Hell. 

In the wake of Jesus's inspiring life of non-violent rebellion, a perverse liturgy weighted by twenty centuries of intolerant bloodthirsty bigotry has erupted in his name.  Attacks on people of color, on nations with oil, on humans of the same gender who love each other, on youth who enjoy sex….all have become staples of a new fundamentalist crusade doing in Christ's name things that would have

Dear Sir (s),

I am portuguese and living in Portugal. Few people knows my country. Nevertheless, what is happening in USA concernes me as well as the rest of the world.

The amount of progress or destruction America can produce is considerable. It is a shame that the biggest pollutor is not even interested in that matter.

It is a shame that probably the most powerfull nation has been promoting so many wars instead of promoting peace.

It is a shame that America is living in an autistic bubble, still.  

Excuse for these rude opinions, but this is the general feeling all over Europe, Africa, Asia even in South America. I travel a lot and I am aware of it.

A friend send me the article by Harvey Wasserman  :" Senator Byrd is correct to equate Bush with Hitler".

I really hope you will be able to help making Americans conscious about the horror of this kind of possibility that it seams to be among them already.

I visited a concentration camp, it is not an Hollywood movie I can assure you.

Keep the good work,
Wanda Videira

AUSTIN, Texas -- I write about the Terri Schiavo case both as one who has personally confronted the "pull the plug" question on several levels in recent years and as a staggered observer of this festival of political hypocrisy, opportunism and the trashing of constitutional law, common sense and common decency.

Look, the fundamental question in such cases is, "Who decides?" Preferably, the dying themselves, with a living will. In this case, evidence that Terri Schiavo did not want her life continued in its current pitiable state has been offered and accepted in several courts of law. Next, the next-of-kin, though in many cases someone else may be closer to the dying person, such as a longtime lover, and should be legally designated to make the decision through power of attorney.

Last summer marked the 40th anniversary of several extraordi nary events in American history – which the national media and, more curiously, the African-American political establishment have largely ignored. These events fundamentally reshaped America’s political landscape regarding the politics of race.

In the summer of 1964, about 1000, mostly white college students traveled to Mississippi as volunteers, assisting civil rights workers there to register thousands of African Americans to vote. Among their number was Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate in 2000. The effort, termed “Freedom Summer,” captured the imagination of the nation and the world at that time.

Why Mississippi? To understand the symbolic significance of this voting rights campaign, one had to appreciate this southern state’s unique position as the paramount site for white racism in America for more than a century.