just back from 6 months in Yellowstone with no cell phone service and no internet....there are only "individual" rights...no white, black, civil, group. or otherwise rights...

Thank you right back.
We all have our own diverse experiences and expertise.
I learn a lot in The Gulch.

Thanks for the insights, Dino. This is something I know very little about and I always pay attention to your posts when you offer something on the subject. You have a valuable experience to share with the rest of us here.

Your Civil Rights...
You have the right to be warm when the sun shines and to drink when it rains. Everything else, you have to work for.

The way a Chinese prison is controlled likely requires more guard manpower and tighter confinement. What USA prisons calls "lock down" (for sleep, counts, occasional institutional searches), the Chinese probably do it 24/7.
During a shift briefing a supervisor said, due to their numerical superiority, it is the inmates who let us boss them around.
Why? They want order. They want us to protect them. We give them three squares a day. We all know CPR and take them to the infirmary and/or transport them to the ER when they are sick or injured. We also transport them to medical specialists and guard them in hospitals.
Order (aka "custody and control") in the nevertheless criminal environment inside a prison is almost all of the time.
Prison riots that make headlines are rare incidents.

Ha, thanks for the informative reply, Dino, as I didn't realize that. However, my "who's in charge" statement was meant to be more facetious than a query into facts, as in it seems from your description the inmates have a lot of power over those charged with guarding over them and that power can be down right irritating and misdirected for dubious purposes. Inmate power at a Chinese prison, from what I understand, is zero or in some cases less than zero, which is why I suggested it may be "culturally educational" for some of our inmates to experience a Chinese prison.

The federal courts are the ones really in charge of state prisons.
Subjects taught during a week of annual training are all about the signed off on transfer of liability.
In other words, at the end of a "block of instruction," you sign paperwork that the state told you to do or not to do something.
That way, the officer answers to an inmate's grievance in federal court, not the State Of Alabama.

Hmm, makes one wonder who's really in charge. Just had a thought... I wonder if our government could save a few bucks by paying some other country to handle our prisoners, say China for instance. Think of it as an "involuntary cultural education program".

I lived in China on a working contract a couple of times and from what I've heard nobody wants to land in a Chinese prison.

Rationalizing an alleged "symmetry" between the "interdependent web of existence" and the "danger" of individualism is subjectivist mush, not a means of "responsible search for truth and meaning". You know enough about Ayn Rand's philosophy to know better.

People who are attracted to Ayn Rand's sense of life and ideas will not find them at all in conventional "liberal" emoting and doctrine of an eclectic religion with its faith, hodge podge of "sacred texts", "six sources" and "seven principles" any more than in their equivalents in Scientology.

Some individuals had influences in different ways. Just because some radical activist stands out does not make him the cause of what you see later. Allinsky was an a-philosophical nihilist who practiced and wrote about his local organizing tactics, which in turn influenced the tactics of the violent New Left in the late 1960s. He did not deal in ideas and principles beyond that. He did not create the trend towards collectivism or make it possible. Neither did an Italian prisoner picking up in the middle of it in the 1930s with "The Plan". (That Hillary Clinton while in college idolized Allinsky tells you more about her than any claim alleging that he was the cause of a national ideological trend with today's results.)

In attributing their tactics as the central cause, without regard to how they caused what you claim, you have left out all account of the ideas behind cultural trends spanning centuries and how they worked their way through society and were implemented in policy. That process is ignored and replaced by conspiracy theorists with the anti-intellectual evil man theory of history typical of the way the old John Birch Society used to rationalize all kinds of alleged conspiracies it hysterically embraced and tried to spread -- and the way the current "Agenda 21" UN conspiracy theorists hysterically spread radical quotes from powerless UN functionaries rationalized as a dire threat, while ignoring the source and spread of ideas and how they are in fact implemented in policy by those with the means to do it in all levels of government.

The British Fabians played a larger role, but not as a conspiracy of evil characters who "somehow" were able to act in government. They were sophisticated intellectuals who adopted socialist ideas beginning in the late 19th century and who knew what they were doing. They were not radical nihilistic street agitators, they were a growing group of professional intellectuals who organized to consistently spread their ideas throughout the professions and in politics over decades, including in America, in order to turn them into government policy. They couldn't have done it without the existing established intellectual trends, and without building on and associating with the ideas already adopted by other intellectuals in both Britain and the US in accordance with the European counter-Enlightenment philosophy that had spread to America. As an intellectual movement, some of whose members were influential in government (like Keynes) they were one part of the trend in the spread of ideas and their implementation.

UU is not the same as Ayn Rand's writing or an organization focused on it.

The Principles are intended to be symmetric, so the 7th Principle about the interdependent web of existence is opposite the 1st Principlee, the inherent worth and dignity of the individual. They are centered around the 4th, a free and responsible search for truth an meaning.

People who find something important in Ayn Rand will not find all the same things at UU.

It is not what you call a conspiracy theory. It is however a pretty well documented plan if you have ever studied Gramsci, or have an understanding of the Fabian Society (1984 is the 100th anniversary of the Fabian Society and was so marked by George Orwell). Read Saul Allinsky and I don't think you would consider this all a "Conspiracy Theory". One must remember, Stalin fully understood the shortcomings of the American psyche in that they would easily become the "useful Idiots" (his terminology). Allinsky, was smart enough to come up with his well documented strategy in the form of two books, the most well known was his "Rules for Radicals". Allinsky was an acolyte of Antonio Gramsci (by his own admission). So, if that is nothing more than a "Conspiracy Theory" there is probably nothing more that can be said to convince you this is/was the plan from the mid fifties on and it has been wildly successful wouldn't you think?

No one should confuse this emotional submersion in eclectic religion and subjectivism with 'liberal' bromides and politics with any kind of sympathy for or similarity with Ayn Rand's philosophy.

http://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-be...

http://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-be...

“Our seventh Principle, respect for the interdependent web of all existence, is a glorious statement. Yet we make a profound mistake when we limit it to merely an environmental idea. It is so much more. It is our response to the great dangers of both individualism and oppression. It is our solution to the seeming conflict between the individual and the group.

“Our seventh Principle may be our Unitarian Universalist way of coming to fully embrace something greater than ourselves. The interdependent web—expressed as the spirit of life, the ground of all being, the oneness of all existence, the community-forming power, the process of life, the creative force, even God—can help us develop that social understanding of ourselves that we and our culture so desperately need. It is a source of meaning to which we can dedicate our lives.”

Those who find something important in Ayn Rand they like should read Ayn Rand and understand the philosophy that it makes it possible. It isn't this.

The banksters and free money terms evolved from the same core movement, ocs, occupy, dsa,world workers party and our new kids on the block - blm. they are terms I heard over and over when I was around occupy several years ago. I do not know those countries, my guess would be they have other domestic issues I excluded the feminists simply because I don`t know much about them, other than they seem to get really pissed if you hold a door for them... Useful idiots are the engine of the train wreck of communism, I think this shot explains them perfectly - http://www.starznbarz.com/Politics/OC...

That's quite a conspiracy theory.

They are fighting against rights, not in favor of them.

The sermon is never religious in the sense of discussing religions uncritically. The head minister has a left-of-center bias, but that certainly doesn't reflect everyone's opinion. When I was a kid went to a Methodist church near the UU church, and I recall they accepted that the historic Jesus is different from the mythical Jesus. My kid's boy scout troop meets at that Methodist church, and today they have posters about LGBTQ equality, so they're definitely not my stereotype of religious intolerance. Keep in mind, this is Madison.

Once at a different UU congregation, someone commented to member "well that frankly sounds like something Ayn Rand would say." The speaker said he would take that as a complement because he was a fan of Ayn Rand. It wasn't a hostile exchange, but people clearly have their own opinions different opinions.

I thought you meant this church: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communi..., but I'm looking at the Madison church and it's pretty cool...

http://www.thesavvystreet.com/beware-...

Oh, THAT church... I've always wanted to visit! :) Is the sermon religious? I interpreted "sermon" plus "minister" as religious (usually is). I'll see if I can get through the video. ;)

When I joined the Alabama Department of Corrections in 1982, I was taught at the Selma academy that state prison inmates were inspired by the civil rights movement to gain more rights.
I was also taught that prison inmates were supposed to be slaves for the length of their sentences and this was based on an academy instructor's interpretation of the 13th Amendment, which pretty much does say that~
https://www.google.com/search?q=13th+...
Inmates writing writs to the federal court led to officers wearing name tags, writing tons of incident reports for just about anything unusual and each prison providing a law library to help inmates write writs.
I was sued three times during my 21-year career.
Fortunately, all three were quickly thrown out by a judge but I had to go to the time-wasting bother of writing a rebuttal or whatever that was called.
One of those three inmates kicked me in the butt while I was busy fighting another inmate.
He got upset due to my writing him up because it prevented him from going to work release the following week.
Yeah, he was really ready to go to work release alright.

"I'm very anti-religion."
No worries. I am atheist/humanist. The congregation is probably 3/4 atheist and 1/4 couples from different faith backgrounds.

Since Frank Wright designed the building in the 40s, I like to think it was the inspiration of the creedless church that Roark approved of and designed a building for in Fountainhead.

No thanks, I'm very anti-religion. I have researched BLM quite a bit already, so unless new facts come to light, I'm good.

It is interesting the use of the term "Banksters" and "Free Money". While it is true that there has been a Banking conspiracy for years (birth of our illustrious" Federal Reserve System and the willy-nilly printing of "Fiat" money (money with no inherent value behind it).

The control of our National economy by our "Central Bank" (yes, the Federal Reserve which is neither Federal nor a Reserve) is a central bank disguised to look like something other than it is. It was conceived by and designed by and implemented by Wall Street Bankers and their international brethern back in 1915 soon to be implemented by our favorite Racist/Progressive, Woodrow Wilson. The rest is history and yes, we are run by the "Creature from Jekyll Island".

Incidentally, can you name the four remaining countries that do not have central banks? It is an interesting anecdote when viewed in our current geopolitical climate.

Also, Betty Friedan(sp?) is/was a Communist an this shows how such movements (including the Feminist movement) are co-opted and for the most part championed by Stalin's "Useful Idiots".....