@dustcirclenews - HEADLINES: War on Whistleblowers, Why Have Student Loans? Bring Organized Resistance, Snowden's Constitution, 5 Farm Bill Groups, 12 Real Patriots, Pro-Apartheid Israel Hypocrisy, Rethinking Surveillance, Wartime U.S. Travelogue, Corporations' Loopholes, more.

See our extended list of important links to other websites: http://www.dustcircle.com

The Wider War on Whistleblowers
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Wider-War-on-Whistlebl-by-Barry-Sussman-130702-357.html

Why Have Student Loans At All? Let's Get the Burdens of Debt off College Students' Backs -- And Make Wall St. Pick Up the Tab
http://www.alternet.org/education/reparations-college-debt

Why It Takes Organized Resistance To Bring in the Sweeping Change That the Public Wants
http://www.alternet.org/activism/organized-resistance-brings-sweeping-change-lessons-us

How We Can Wrench Independence from the Corporate State
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/how-we-can-wrench-independence-corporate-state

Snowden's Constitution vs Obama's Constitution
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130703/00121023700/snowdens-constitution-vs-obamas-constitution.shtml

Edward Snowden: A Whistleblower, Not a Spy
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/07/03-8

5 Farm Bill Groups You Didn’t Know Existed
http://blogs.rollcall.com/goppers/5-farm-bill-groups-you-didnt-think-existed/

12 Real Patriots Brave Enough to Fight for Truth and Justice

http://www.alternet.org/activism/12-real-patriots-brave-enough-fight-truth-and-justice

Hypocrisy Of Pro-Apartheid Israel Obama Visiting Post-Apartheid South Africa
http://www.countercurrents.org/polya030713.htm

To Big U.S. Corporations: What About Some Patriotism for America?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ralph-nader/corporate-patriotism_b_3542125.html


Rethinking Surveillance [Book Review]
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/jul/02/electronic-surveillance-missing-laws/

Federal Student Loan Rates Double Due To Lack Of Urgency In Congress
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/07/02/federal-student-loan-rates-double-due-to-lack-of-urgency-in-congress/

5 Sneaky Ways Fundamentalists Are Trying To Slip Christian Creationism Into America’s Public Schools
http://www.alternet.org/belief/public-schools

Wartime U.S. Travelogue
http://www.countercurrents.org/swanson040713.htm

Thanks To ‘Loopholes’ U.S. Corporations Pay A Lower Tax Rate Than Middle Class Families
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/07/03/thanks-to-loopholes-u-s-corporations-pay-a-lower-tax-rate-than-middle-class-families/

Guantanamo inmate accuses US military of sexual assault against detainees
http://jurist.org/paperchase/2013/07/guantanamo-bay-inmate-accuses-us-military-of-sexual-assault-against-detainees.php

US government scanning, storing billions of pieces of mail per year
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/07/05/mail-j05.html

The revolution will not be standardized
http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/the-revolution-will-not-be-standardized/

Why Edward Snowden's Leaks Have Empowered All of Us
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/knowledge-metadata-power

Scientific evidence: what is it and how can we trust it?http://machineslikeus.com/news/scientific-evidence-what-it-and-how-can-we-trust-it

American Intellectuals' Widespread Failure to Stand Up to Billionaires and Authoritarian Power
http://www.alternet.org/books/widespread-failure-intellectuals-stand-authoritarian-power-america

Why do charities want to "normalize" Israeli apartheid?http://electronicintifada.net/content/why-do-charities-want-normalize-israeli-apartheid/12592

Over Half of Republicans Want Christianity as the Official Religion in States
http://atheism.about.com/od/Church-State-Survey-Polls/a/Republicans-Want-Christianity-Official-Religion-States.htm?nl=1

People Get Ready: 'Unprecedented' Weather Glimpses Century Ahead
Latest report from WMO says first decade of century was hottest, wettest on record with more to come

It was a decade of 'unprecedented' extreme weather, caused by warmer oceans, hotter temperatures, and an atmosphere saturated with moisture. And there's more where that came from.

Failure to Stop Doubling of Student Loan Rates Sparks Call to Tackle "Systemic" Debt Crisis

# 1 Target of Wiretap Surveillance?

10.Oct.2012 - U.S. Deaths Surpass 2.5 Million, Remember Iraq, U.N. Peasant Rights, Christian Zionists Back Israel's Decisions, 1 in 5 Americans 'Nones,' Pay What You Want, Romney's Morally Bankrupt, ADHD Meds for Poor Kids, Monsanto vs. Growers, American Empire Disaster on Autopilot, Real Attack on 1%, White History Month, Vote Fraud Whistleblower, DeVito Speaks Out for Prop 37

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U.S. Mortality Rate: Deaths Surpass 2.5 Million For The First Time

U.S. deaths surpassed 2.5 million for the first time last year, reflecting the nation's growing and aging population. The increase of about 45,000 more deaths than in 2010 was not surprising. The annual number of deaths has been generally rising for decades as the population has swelled.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/10/us-mortality-rate_n_1953215.html

Remember Iraq? Romney, Obama Fail To Make War Major Part Of Campaign

In his major foreign policy speech on Monday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said the "costly gains made by our troops" in Iraq are now eroding due to President Barack Obama's "abrupt withdrawal."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/09/iraq-romney-obama-bush_n_1952385.html

One-third of humanity: peasant rights in the United Nations
The United Nations are moving towards a finalization of a UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. In 2007 the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples boosted these rights in many national constitutions. Will western governments put their objections aside?
http://www.opendemocracy.net/marc-edelman/one-third-of-humanity-peasant-rights-in-united-nations

The US media’s schizophrenic approach to mass shootings

Yet again, the Aurora shooting showed how far away we are from truly "color blind" media reporting on crime. It is time to reflect on how being a white, middle-class male may also be part of the equation.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/audrey-ann-lavallee-belanger/us-media%E2%80%99s-schizophrenic-approach-to-mass-shootings

Christian Zionists Back Israel’s Risky Policy Decisions
Christian Zionists increasingly act as if they were religious Jews until the End. They refer to the year 5773; many have changed their day of Sabbath from Sunday to Saturday; some have made aliyah through the use of suspect Jewish ancestry, or are on indefinitely renewed tourist visas; they donate millions of dollars indirectly to settlements activity and provide various IDF battalions military equipment; their national allegiance is seemingly stronger to Israel than America, as illustrated by their condemnation of US policy that criticizes Israel because Israeli policy is understood as God sanctioned and therefore infallible; and they make pilgrimages to Israel less to celebrate Christ and more to “witness the incoming” of Jews to Israel.http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/christian-zionists-back-israels-risky-policy-decisions/

Losing our religion: One in five Americans are now ‘nones’
Labeled “nones” because they claim either no religious preference or no religion at all, their ranks have hit 46 million people. Much of the growth is among young people -- one in three U.S. adults under 30 are now considered nones.
http://www.religionnews.com/faith/beliefs/Losing-our-religion-One-in-five-Americans-are-now-nones

DHS: Our Reports To Congress Are Successful Bullshit

Okay, it's official. I no longer believe that our Department of Homeland Security is an actual government agency with important work to do. No, I now believe that it is a series of highly subtle performance art pieces designed to make us laugh at the sheer audacity of dumb government. We already know about the agency's boss, who is in charge of cybersecurity, not bothering to use the internet. And then there is the DHS's highly touted fusion centers being both a waste of money and a detriment to the very freedoms they're supposedly protecting.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121004/18132820601/dhs-our-reports-to-congress-are-successful-bullshit.shtml

Giving online customers the chance to pay what they want works

The Humble Indie Bundle shows most do the right thing which helps offset the people who don't give a damn
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/09/customers-pay-what-want

9 Things That Show Mitt Romney Is Morally Bankrupt

It’s not that hard to be good to your family and friends. If true morality is evidenced by how one treats strangers, Romney’s reputation as a moral actor should be under water.

http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/9-things-show-mitt-romney-morally-bankrupt

Why America's Empire Never Achieves Its Goals

The U.S. military reigns supreme. Yet nowhere can it achieve its goals, however modest.

http://www.alternet.org/world/why-americas-empire-never-achieves-its-goals

Poor Kids Getting Prescribed ADHD Meds They Don't Need, Against Their Will

A doctor who prescribes the meds said, "We've decided as a society that it's too expensive to modify the kid's environment. So we have to modify the kid."

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/shocking-children-pumped-full-speed-only-realistic-way-do-well-cash-strapped-schools

Deal With the Devil: Monsanto vs Own Growers
he case of Vernon Bowman v Monsanto is headed to the Supreme Court, a case in which Monsanto is fighting against one of its own GMO farmers. Mr. Bowman is a farmer from Indiana who grows soybeans, and has challenged the biotech giant over its official agreement.
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/13878-deal-with-the-devil-monsanto-vs-own-growers

US, Israel Have Plan for Joint 'Surgical Strike' Against Iran

Obama has a military option plan against Iran -- a "joint U.S.-Israeli surgical strike," and he should communicate it to diffuse comments from Romney that he has not been tough enough on Iran and has not issued a "red line," according to a report published Monday in Foreign Policy.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/10/09-3

How the US Quietly Lost the IED War in Afghanistan

Although the surge of “insider attacks” on U.S.-NATO forces has dominated coverage of the war in Afghanistan in 2012, an even more important story has been quietly unfolding: the U.S. loss of the pivotal war of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to the Taliban.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/10/09-0

American Empire: A Disaster on Autopilot

Americans lived in a “victory culture” for much of the twentieth century.  You could say that we experienced an almost 75-year stretch of triumphalism -- think of it as the real “American Century” -- from World War I to the end of the Cold War, with time off for a destructive stalemate in Korea and a defeat in Vietnam too shocking to absorb or shake off.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/10/09-4

Go for the Jugular: What a Real Attack on Mitt Romney and the 1% Could Look Like

I agree with Deepak Bhargava that President Obama’s record “is more mixed” than critics and admirers admit, that progressives must refocus our attention on Congress and statehouse elections, and that elections are a “necessary but not sufficient condition for a revival of progressive politics.”

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/10/09-1

Why America Needs White History Month

The Republican presidential campaign has persuaded me. Not to vote for Mitt Romney, God no. They have, however, convinced me of something else I previously considered unthinkable. In some ways, the idea betrays my black nationalist inclinations, but having witnessed the GOP's flailing for the past year and a half as they've tried to mount a campaign to unseat President Obama, I've finally come around.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/10/09-11

Drones: A New Death From Above
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Buying Power: Corporate Money in Politics
Download mp3 • Download 1 minute Preview

Cops Harass, Grope, and Threaten Teenager “For Being a F*cking Mutt"

Bug-based food dye - harmful or not?

Vote Fraud - Diebold Whistleblower Speaks Out

Danny DeVito and Crew Speak Out for Prop 37, GMO Labeling

War on Drugs an 'obstacle to black progress'?

Teenage rights activist shot in Pakistan

Will the JPMorgan fraud lawsuit be the first of many on Wall Street?

Fear in Advertising

Conspiracy road trip with creationists: Noah’s Ark and other LOLz

Gaza's People Blame Poverty on Israeli Blockade and Hamas Leadership

For Gazans life remains unbearable, Amnesty International estimates that 70 percent of families live on less than one dollar per person per day

Watch full multipart Humanitarian Crisis Continues in Gaza

Fueling the Food Crisis Tim A. Wise: Bio-fuels are driving up the price of food everywhere and costing developing countries billions

Why You Don't Need God to be Good: the Rise of Atheist Charities

Charitable organizations geared towards non-believers are growing.

 

January 26, 2012  |   

[REPRINT]

 

"Good without God" has become a catch-phrase of the increasingly vocal atheist and freethinker movement -- from books to billboards, the non-religious are asserting the strength of their humanist ethics. As atheists emerge from the closet and stand up for themselves, one message they're bringing along is that charity is far from an inherent monopoly of the religious.

In his book "Who Really Cares," social scientist Arthur C. Brooks hypothesized a “gap in virtue” that might explain why he found religious people donate 25% more to charity than secular individuals. But Dale McGowan, who founded the Foundation Beyond Belief in 2010, didn't buy it.

“I find the question of churchgoing really telling,” McGowan says. In place of a virtue gap between the religious and secular, he sees a structural advantage in the church system. The website for the Foundation Beyond Belief (FBB), which he launched in 2010, reads: “Call us crazy, but it just might have more to do with whether or not a shiny plate full of the donations of your friends and neighbors passes in front of you like clockwork, up to 52 times a year.” Atheists just need their organizations geared towards giving, not God.

Even Brooks admits that his findings don’t prove any connection between believing in God and an natural imperative to give. “If charity is indeed a learned behavior, it may be that houses of worship are only one means (albeit an especially efficacious one) to teach it. Secularists interested in increasing charitable giving and volunteering among their ranks might spend some effort thinking of alternative ways to foster these habits.” Today, the Foundation Beyond Belief and other groups have put plenty of effort into thinking of these “alternative ways.” And they have big plans for their future.

McGowan designed the FBB to operate on a monthly automatic donation model, gaining 1000 members and raising nearly a quarter million dollars in two years. And other successful online atheist charitable ventures have captured the mainstream media's interest, leading USA Today to write, “Atheists aim to change image of penny-pinching Scrooges.” The large Reddit atheist community raised over $200,000 for Doctors Without Borders in November, nearly crashing Reddit with the high traffic; FirstGiving, the online fundraising site they used, called it “one of the most successful grassroots fundraising efforts we’ve ever seen.” A Dallas/Ft. Worth Fellowship of Freethought (FoF), FBB’s 2010 and 2011 Partner of the Year, demonstrates the benefits of an in-person community. The Fellowship’s goal is to “create that sense of real intimate community, that is found, quite frankly, most often with churches and other religious communities,” says Executive Director Zach Moore. “Let’s do something like that, but not anything superstitious, supernatural, no appeals to authority.”

FoF holds a monthly gathering to talk about shared purpose, enjoying the sense of community. Moore identified three core values: providing “social support” and an “educational resource,” and participating in “charity and charitable outreach.” Their most successful fundraising project has been simply to hold a casual cocktail party and ask for donations, like one would for political candidates.

McGowan and Moore see the goal of their organizations as “focused, planned charitable giving,” explaining that atheists, freethinkers, and secular humanists already excel at helping during catastrophes, but that still adds up to less overall giving in the course of a year. Moore identified the partnership between his local group and the FBB as a “perfect fit,” because it provided an ongoing purpose that rallied members. “It’s not about criticizing this church or that church,” Moore comments, “but guess what, we can do the same thing, and we can do just as good work as any of those churches out there.” He also sees many churches as losing their charitable priorities, saying, “I know Christians and other believers who have come out of churches because they’re unsatisfied.” Moore prophesies an “emptying of American pews [that’s] going to create an amazing opportunity for humanist organizations.”

Secular Humanism 
The Fellowship of Freethought, Foundation Beyond Belief, and other charitable organizations catering to atheists and freethinkers also derive their values from humanism -- as do many atheists and freethinkers themselves. In describing FoF’s membership, Moore provided a good basic definition for humanists: “people who really want to make a difference in the here and now, because this is it, this is the only life we have.” Moore and McGowan's understanding of humanism keeps them from believing religious faith has an innate moral advantage, only accepting that churches' structural advantage has lead to more religious giving. But some non-theists don't even agree with that, challenging the existing data regarding “who really cares” as biased or inaccurate.

Besides the fact that the studies ignore the distinction between a disinterested Christian and a passionate atheist or humanist, they also rely on self-reporting. “And when churchgoers pat themselves on the back for doing what is socially expected, sociologists grow skeptical,” writes Tom Flynn, Executive Director of the Council for Secular Humanism. Flynn points to sociologist Kirk Hadaway, who found it incredible that 40% of American attend church each Sunday -- more churchgoers than church seats. So in 1992 he literally had every person in the pews in a large Ohio county counted, coming up with half the number reached through self-reporting. “To this day, Americans tell pollsters they were in church the previous Sunday at the 40-percent level,” Flynn continues. “The difference is, now social scientists know that half of them are lying.”

And, of course, a portion of the donations from churchgoers go to maintain the actual churches. Atheists are also coming out in (financial) support of their own -- in just a week this January, more than $25,000 was raised for a college fund for Jessica Ahlquist, a high schooler who received death threats for successfully challenging the constitutionality of a public school prayer banner.

“I think it’s important that we do have organizations like Humanist Charities and Foundation Beyond Belief,” Ardiente continued. “We’ve just been giving quietly for years and years ... but because of this myth that’s out there, we’ve felt it’s necessary to be a little more vocal about our giving and our support.” She pointed out that secular organizations have long been doing good, such as Doctors Without Borders (not to mention agnostic/atheist philanthropists such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet), but atheists and secular humanists don’t get credit for these groups. "Part of humanism is about helping others, and being good without God.”

Can We All Just Get Along?

Ardiente and others agree that encouraging more atheist/humanist giving and volunteering is a positive action, one their organizations can help with. Like the Foundation Beyond Belief, Humanist Charities also has a local community partners program, as does the Center for Inquiry’s SHARE program (Skeptics and Humanists Aid and Relief Effort).

The growth of charitable outlets designed for atheists, freethinkers, and secular humanists not only rallies nonbelievers and increases their public profile, it can also provide a venue they feel more comfortable donating to. The SHARE website explains its motivation thus: “skeptics and humanists are frustrated that so many charitable organizations, especially those that help people afflicted by natural or human disasters, have efforts coordinated by religious organizations. These organizations sometimes proselytize to the people in need of their services. This is entirely unacceptable.”

Ardiente says that AHA’s members shared this concern: “they wanted to make sure that their donations really only went to food and water and shelter, things people needed, not religious proselytizing.” They also look to counter “the really negative rhetoric of some of these religious leaders” -- think Pat Robertson on Haiti -- and encourage people to give what’s needed “rather than praying, rather than trying to blame God or ask God why this happened.”

Despite these concerns about proselytizing and negative religious forces, many nonbelievers want to work with religious charitable groups. Members of the Foundation Beyond Belief, for instance, can choose to donate to religious beneficiaries through its “Challenge the Gap” program. “We wanted to create the ability for secular humanist or atheists of any inclination to express their worldview as they see fit, and one of the things our members expressed in interest in was occasionally giving money to religious charities,” McGowan explained.

Lyz Liddell, advisor for “Challenge the Gap” and the Director of Campus Organizing for the Secular Student Alliance (SSA), sees a need to create bridges with religious groups to better achieve the end goal of helping people in need. SSA supports high school and college student groups, which they encourage to consider charity a priority and participate in service projects, which are often held in collaboration with religious groups.

Younger people have gotten creative with fundraisers, asking for donations to “send an atheist to church” or reading religious texts for charity -- creating something positive out of many religious people's desire to challenge nontheist beliefs. A “stone-a-heathen” event at one school simultaneously raised money and awareness for the ongoing practice of stoning in certain countries.

However, even when atheists, freethinkers, and secular humanists may wanted to reach out, the gesture is not always returned. Todd Stiefel of the Stiefel Freethought Foundation received unexpected attention when his donation to the American Cancer Society wasn’t welcomed with open arms. He says that he has “repeatedly come across people not wanting money from my foundation or from me basically because I’m an atheist” -- either because of the group’s own prejudices or a fear of backlash for associating with atheists. So while being criticized for inadequate charity, atheists can’t even give their money away?

The Foundation Beyond Belief has also occasionally been turned down, although McGowan stresses that overwhelmingly the charities selected enthusiastically accept the donations. Neither Stiefel or McGowan wanted to dwell on this negative experience, but Stiefel did say that this discrimination only motivates him to do more. “We have lot of work to do to break down the stereotypes and false information that is out there about us ... I think that reason-based secular values are American values, and I think that over the test of time we’ll be able to show the world that we are every bit as ethical as anyone else.”

Alex DiBranco is an NYC-based writer who covers women's rights, immigration, atheism, and the Religious Right.