Pugnacious Proselytizing: Woman in Idaho Arrested for Trying to Convert Jewish Acquaintance to Jesus…by Beating Her

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
Margurite Haragan

Margurite Dawn Haragan

By Elaine Magliaro

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the saying “You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.” It seems like common sense that by being polite and thoughtful towards others that you’ll be more likely to persuade them toward your way of thinking than by being rude and combative. But a Boise women decided to try a rude and combative approach when trying to convert a Jewish acquaintance to Christianity.

Margurite Dawn Haragan, 58, is now “facing felony charges after police say she beat, kicked, and stomped on the neck of a Jewish woman in an attempt to convert her to Jesus.” Prosecutors called it a hate crime and have charged Haragan “with two counts of malicious harassment for beating the woman identified in court documents as ‘A.G.’” According to Katie Terhune of KTVB, prosecutors said that the incident “started when Haragan showed up at the victim’s home Feb. 5.”

Ada County Prosecutor Dave Roscheck was quoted as saying, “The defendant was banging on the front window yelling at her that she better believe in Jesus and she was not going to leave until she did believe in Jesus.” Roscheck  said that “A.G.,” the Jewish victim, opened her door to tell Haragan to leave…and to write down Haragan’s license plate number. That’s when Haragan reportedly  slapped the victim “in the face and dragged her to the ground by her hair.” Continue reading →

Posted in Anti-Semitism, Christianity, Religion, United States | 13 Comments

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Another Bad Trade Deal for the United States Like NAFTA?

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Unknown-1By Elaine Magliaro

Robert Reich, who served as Secretary of Labor in President Bill Clinton’s administration, is currently the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. Yesterday, Reich posted a column on his blog titled How Trade Deals Boost the Top 1 Percent and Bust the Rest.

Reich wrote that he used to be supportive of trade agreements. He said believed in them “before the wages of most Americans stagnated and a relative few at the top captured just about all the economic gains.”

Reich:

Suppose that by enacting a particular law we’d increase the U.S.Gross Domestic Product. But almost all that growth would go to the richest 1 percent. 


The rest of us could buy some products cheaper than before. But those gains would be offset by losses of jobs and wages.

This is pretty much what “free trade” has brought us over the last two decades.

Continue reading →

Posted in Barack Obama, Countries, Democracy, Fascists/Corporatists, Presidents, United States | Tagged | 6 Comments

John Oliver’s Takedown of the Tobacco Industry on “Last Week Tonight” (VIDEO)

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

oliver_tobacco_lung-800x430By Elaine Magliaro

One might assume that American tobacco companies were hurting because the “smoking rate in the United States has dropped from 43 percent in 1965 to 18 percent today…” The drastic drop is due “to strict laws outlawing cigarette ads.” Despite the low rate of smoking here, the tobacco industry’s profits are reportedly “higher than ever.” And why is that? Because tobacco companies have  greatly increased their revenues abroad.

On Sunday, John Oliver did a segment on Last Week Tonight about what the big tobacco companies are doing outside of the United States. One of their tactics is suing countries that “have attempted to create public health laws in order to stem the tide of citizens who become addicted to the their cancer-causing products.” Those countries include Australia, Uruguay, and a number of developing nations.

Tom Boggioni (Raw Story):

Oliver pointed that the soaring profits are due to tobacco companies aggressive marketing of their products in overseas markets where they have learned to bully governments in the international court system.

Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Constitutional Law, Countries, Health Care, Humor, Short Video | Tagged , | 11 Comments

REALLY Buried in Snow!!!!!

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

By Elaine Magliaro

Last week, I wrote a post titled Buried in Snow! Two Winter Poems for Children. We actually were buried in snow at the time. Well, we got another storm this weekend. On top of the six feet of snow that previous storms had deposited on the ground in my neck of the woods–we got about another eighteen inches of the cold white stuff. And we may get another storm mid-week. Oh, my chin’ head. There’s no more room for the snow we plow, shovel, and snow blow. Roofs have sprung leaks…and collapsed. It may be summer before we see the ground again!

This is how some people around here feel about the coldest season of the year at the moment:

1601599_10152151546259561_1347385379_n

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Profiles in Courage: A Gallery of US Heroes Who Said No to Torture

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Great_Seal_of_the_United_States_(obverse).svgBy Elaine Magliaro

I just came across an interesting op-ed titled Saying No to Torture: A Gallery of US Heroes at Truthout. The op-ed was was written by Rebecca Gordon, the author of Mainstreaming Torture: Ethical Approaches in the Post-9/11 United States (Oxford University Press). She teaches in the philosophy department at the University of San Francisco. In her op-ed, Gordon wrote about six “heroes” who refused to torture people or who risked their careers in order to help inform the people of this country about what agents of our government were doing to detainees in their custody: Sergeant Joseph M. Darby, Major General Antonio M. Taguba, General Counsel to the Navy Alberto J. Mora, John Kiriakou, Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Couch, and an unnamed Navy nurse. Gordon said that  the nurse’s “identity is being withheld on the advice of his lawyers, because he still faces legal sanctions for his action.”

Here’s how Gordon begins her op-ed:

Why was it again that, as President Obama said, “we tortured some folks” after the 9/11 attacks? Oh, right, because we were terrified. Because everyone knows that being afraid gives you moral license to do whatever you need to do to keep yourself safe. That’s why we don’t shame or punish those who were too scared to imagine doing anything else. We honor and revere them.

Back in August 2014, Obama explained the urge of the top figures in the Bush administration to torture “some folks” this way: “I understand why it happened. I think it’s important, when we look back, to recall how afraid people were when the twin towers fell.” So naturally, in those panicked days, the people in charge had little choice but to order the waterboarding, wall-slamming, and rectal rehydration of whatever possible terrorists(and innocents) the CIA got their hands on. That’s what fear drives you to do and don’t forget, at the time even some mainstream liberal columnists were calling for torture. And whatever you do, don’t forget as well that they were so, so afraid. That’s why, says the president, “It’s important for us not to feel too sanctimonious,” too quick to judge the people in the Bush administration, the CIA, and even the U.S. military who planned, implemented, and justified torture.

Continue reading →

Posted in Afghanistan, American History, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Government, Government Propaganda, Iraq, Presidents, Propaganda, Psychology, United States, US Military, War on "Terror" | Tagged , | 15 Comments

FFS Update: The Library

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Gene Howington

The Flowers for Socrates Library page is now open. It contains a small selection of  .pdf versions of legal documents and other materials in the public domain or under a fair use license that can help provide context and understanding of many of the topics discussed here. There is also a child page, Free E-book Resources, that can lead you to a wide range of free ebooks and other materials you might find useful. Knowledge is power! Get some today!

Gene Howington, Editor-in-Chief

Posted in FFS Update(s) | 1 Comment

“To My Dear and Loving Husband”: A Love Poem by Anne Bradstreet

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

By Elaine Magliaro

valentinestwoarrow

Because it’s Valentine’s Day, I decided to post a love poem. The following poem by Anne Bradstreet was written in the 1600s. According to the Poetry Foundation, Bradstreet “was the first woman to be recognized as an accomplished New World Poet.”

Poetry Foundation:

Her volume of poetry The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America … received considerable favorable attention when it was first published in London in 1650. Eight years after it appeared it was listed by William London in his Catalogue of the Most Vendible Books in England, and George III is reported to have had the volume in his library. Bradstreet’s work has endured, and she is still considered to be one of the most important early American poets.

TO MY DEAR AND LOVING HUSBAND
By Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay;
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let’s so persever,
That when we live no more, we may live ever.

Continue reading →

Posted in American History, Countries, Literature, Poetry, United States | Tagged , , | Comments Off on “To My Dear and Loving Husband”: A Love Poem by Anne Bradstreet

On the Subject of America’s Racial Terror and How Lynch Mobs and Barbaric Violence Still Haunt Our Country Today

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

jesse-washington-lot13093-no.38By Elaine Magliaro

On Tuesday, Mike Spindell wrote a post titled When We See ISIL’s Barbarity, We Forget Our Own. In his column, Mike wrote about remarks that President Obama had made at this year’s National Prayer Breakfast.

Mike Spindell:

President Obama was recently criticized for his speech at a prayer breakfast for stating that Christianity too has had incidents where supposedly religious people acted barbarically. Many of his critics said he was bringing up a history that was hundreds of years past and so no longer was relevant. America’s legacy of enslavement and hatred of people of color is not a relic of 400 years past, but I would argue far more current.

The same day, I wrote a post about a report on lynchings in America that the Equal Justice Institute (EJI) had recently published. EJI’s multi-year investigation looked into nearly 4,000 lynchings of African Americans that took place  in this country from 1877 to 1950.

This morning, Elias Isquith of Salon posted an interview with Bryan Stevenson, the founder and director of EJI, titled America’s real racial terror: How lynch mobs & barbaric violence haunt us today. Isquith said that Salon spoke with Stevenson on the phone in order to discuss EJI’s report and “the importance of recognizing these lynchings as a form of terrorism and how the age of racial terror still influences the United States today.”

Continue reading →

Posted in American History, Equal Rights, Government, Local Government, Racism, States, United States | Tagged , , , , | 55 Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Gene Howington

We at FFS would like to extend a Happy Valentine’s Day to our audience. True, it is as a modern holiday one largely made up by the greeting card industry, but that doesn’t alter the sentiment behind it: celebrating romantic love from the simple crush to lifelong dedication to a partner. Few know the history behind the holiday though. It is a tale, like many in history, a story obscured in its true roots. Despite this murky history, it is hard to argue that a day celebrating love is a bad thing in a world where more love of all kinds would be most helpful.

Celebrate love today!

Unless of course you are a member of the North Side Irish gang led by Bugs Moran. Then today is a day of celebrating getting viciously gunned down by Al Capone’s crew.  But I digress.

May love in all its splendorous forms find you all not just today, but every day.

Gene Howington, Editor-in-Chief

Posted in History, Holidays | Tagged | 8 Comments

CIA Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling’s “Trial by Metadata”: Does It Set a Dangerous Precedent for Free Speech Rights in the United States?

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
Jeffrey Sterling

Jeffrey Sterling

By Elaine Magliaro

Last week, I posted a column about Jeffrey Sterling, the former CIA officer who was convicted in late January of violating the Espionage Act. Earlier this week, the BBC called the jury’s verdict “guilt by metadata.”

BBC:

When a Washington, DC, area jury convicted Jeffrey Sterling of multiple counts of espionage, the smoking gun wasn’t a key bit of classified information found in the former CIA officer’s possession; it was a trail of phone calls and emails of unknown content.

The information about where those calls and emails went, however – to a New York Times journalist – was enough to convince a jury to send Sterling to prison for up to 80 years.

Norman Solomon–who covered Sterling’s 7-day trial–spoke with Democracy Now! on Thursday. Solomon said he thought Sterling’s case was an extremely important one–and that it had been seriously underreported by the news media.

Continue reading →

Posted in American History, CIA, Constitutional Law, Countries, Courts, Crime, Democracy, DOJ, Free Speech, Government, Government Propaganda, Iran, Jurisprudence, Justice, Media, Politics, Society, United States, War, War on "Terror" | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments