ThinkingBlue: JESUS CAMP OR CAMP OF TORMENT

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This morning on my usual search of the Crooks and Liars website, I came across something quite startling. It seems there are people sending their little children to a camp called Jesus Camp. This "camp" sounds harmless at first but what is really happening there is a brainwashing of little minds. To me, this is just another ceremonial abuse of children. How can they do this to their little one's senses?

On the film clip below, it is said that other religions do a "die for God" teaching, so why shouldn't they? Those other religions they refer to are in third world countries that have been wracked with violence for generations. The human condition in such places have incorporated violence into their very life-styles. This is solemn but true.

We in the U.S. have enjoyed a peaceful existence for the most part. Any wars we have engaged in have been fought on far-away lands. To try to proselytize a middle-class American child who's only existense has been to love and be loved, to become war-like and kill is an abomination. (I would imagine though, the military would not mind a child with such a background because it would be easier to train them into killers when they enter the Armed Services)

WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE THINKING? We should be promoting peace as a way of life for our young. Why are they so bent on a warring state of mind? What happened to the
Lost Religion of Jesus?

A groundbreaking, timely, and important book. It can help us shift the current dialogue about Christian fundamentalism to the fundamentals of what Jesus really taught. Based on ignored writings by and about the Jewish followers of Jesus, Keith Akers has put together compelling evidence that the core teachings of Jesus—caring, compassion, simple living, and nonviolence against both humans and animals—remained at the core of the early Jewish communities that saw Jesus as he saw himself, as a Jewish prophet.

Perhaps, if these parents would put themselves through the torture their children are enduring at these CAMPS OF TORMENT, they would think again.

What a sad existence if vengeance and retribution are the only teachings we can come up with for our young. thinkingblue

PS: Please click the picture below to watch a bit of what this camp is proposing and doing to it's fledglings.

Too, too sad.

Innovative, but flawed, research

Economists Alan Krueger and Jitka Malechova were the first to offer an innovative empirical study on the correlation between education and poverty, and the support of or participation in terrorism. They shattered the traditional conviction that poverty can drive some to violence. However, their conclusions could imply two propositions: (a) that there are more factors at play when it comes to terrorism (i.e., neither poverty nor education alone or combined can explain it), or (b) that militant extremists are not driven to terrorism by their economic deprivation or by their ignorance, but rather by a desire to destroy the "American way of life."

The first proposition is consistent with the study authors'views. However, the media, politicians, and other scholars interpreted the results according to the second proposition. The current consensus among academics, policy makers, and military officials is that fighting poverty and fighting terrorism are not necessarily related.

The contemporary empirical research on terrorism and suicide attacks is innovative and challenging, but fundamentally misguided. Suicide attacks were analyzed without adequate reference to the long period of conflict and its military dynamics. A study that does not give weight or importance to a nation's yearning for justice, equity, and revenge in a conflict zone is acutely deficient.

I believed that an in-depth examination of attackers' lives could explain why individuals as young as 16 would end their lives in a horrific way, and could contribute to effective tactical measures to curb such tragedies. Itried to understand, not justify, their deadly actions.

I visited Palestinian militant websites to read the
biographies of suicide bombers, and in the past two years I have compiled a comprehensive list of Palestinian militants killed before and during the second intifada. My database includes socioeconomic indicators such as age, marital status, family size, place of residence, education level, and occupation. However, as others found, there did not seem to be any pattern to uniquely define a Palestinian suicide bomber. Most were in their early 20s. Some had successful careers, others were unemployed. Many were well educated, with college degrees completed or in progress. Some were from well-to-do families, others were impoverished. Some were married with children, some newly wed, some single. Hence, it has been widely cited that neither lack of education nor poverty appear to be a prime motivator.

This finding enjoyed undisputed and favorable reception by the media and among policy makers, especially in the US, Russia, and Israel. The new received wisdom is that military violence can quell insurgent violence. According to existing studies, government deployment of counterinsurgency measures that can disrupt economic and social life and increase economic stress on the civilian population do not necessarily cause a backlash. The use of disproportional power in conflict areas became an indispensable tool to military strategists.

The fallacy with that proposition is clear. Attempts to explain suicide attacks and terrorism in purely economic terms ignore the real political, social, and psychological factors that have always motivated collective violence. Restricting attention to only economic factors or education has resulted in no understanding of Palestinian suicide attacks.

So What's Missing??

Current research on terrorism has ignored considerable research that indicates the importance of psychological
factors such as frustration and trauma.

A 1999 report entitled "The Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism"summarizes research conducted by psychologists and sociologists. According to evidence cited in the report, terrorists are psychologically normal with no evidence of a depressed personality:

"There is little reliable evidence to support the notion that terrorists in general are psychologically disturbed individuals. The careful, detailed planning and well-timed execution that have characterized many terrorist operations are hardly typical of mentally disturbed individuals."

An important psychological factor prevalent in conflict zones that empirical research did not account for is the grievance factor. The significant role grievances play in motivating actors in political contexts has long been known. In 1919, Lewis Richardson's Arms-Race Model explicitly incorporated a "grievance factor" to explain military buildup among nations.

Psychiatrist Eyad El Sarraj recognized the impact living in a conflict zone could have on some people:

"The people who are committing suicide bombings in this intifada are the children of the first intifada -- people who witnessed so much trauma as children. So as they grew up, their own identity merged with the national identity of humiliation and defeat, and they avenge that defeat at both the personal and national levels."

I have compiled a list of 50 suicide attackers from the
biographies published on the Palestinian militant websites. All had a direct reference to a traumatic experience in their lives. Almost half indicate a traumatic experience in the first intifada. They were either injured, arrested, or had a family member killed or injured by the Israel Defense Force (IDF). Forty-four suicide attacks have recorded explicit grievances resulting from IDF military operations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

TO READ MORE CLICK THIS LINK
Palestinian Suicide Attacks Revisited

EVERYBODY'S GOTTA LEARN SOMETIMES most important movie of your life

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CLICK HERE TO VIEW CROOKS AND LIARS WMP KEITH OLBERMANN

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More wmp's below. thinkingblue

Click here or above picture to hear what Harvey Keitel has to say about Path To 911.

Click here or above picture to hear what Greg Mitchell has to say about Path To 911.
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The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear.
(IF YOU HAVE A GOOGLEPLAYER...PLEASE WATCH THIS VERY FRIGHTENING BUT
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