Tuesday, November 8, 2022

God

Representation (for the purpose of art or worship) of God in (left to right from top) ChristianityIslamAtenism, the MonadBalinese Hinduism, and Zoroastrianism.

In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith.[1] God is usually conceived of as being omnipotentomniscientomnipresent, and omnibenevolent, as well as having an eternal and necessary existence. God is most often held to be incorporeal, with said characteristic being related to conceptions of transcendence or immanence.[1][2][3]

Some religions describe God without reference to gender, while others use terminology that is gender-specific and gender-biased. God has been conceived as either personal or impersonal. In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, while in deism, God is the creator, but not the sustainer, of the universe. In pantheism, God is the universe itself, while in panentheism, the universe is part (but not the whole) of God. Atheism is an absence of belief in any God or deity, while agnosticism is the belief that the existence of God is unknown or unknowable. God has also been conceived as the source of all moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable existent".[1]

Many notable theologians and philosophers have developed arguments for and against the existence of God.[4] God is referred to by different names depending on the language and cultural tradition with titles sometimes used referring to God's attributes. 

Sunday, November 6, 2022

Gigi Becali

 George "Gigi" Becali (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈdʒe̯ordʒe beˈkali]; born 25 June 1958) is a Romanian businessman and former politician, mostly known for his ownership of the FCSB football club.

Becali was a Member of the European Parliament between June 2009 and December 2012, and a Member of the Romanian Parliament from December 2012 up until his conviction in May 2013.

Early life[edit]

Becali was born in VădeniBrăila County, to an Aromanian family which had been deported to the Bărăgan Plain by the Communist authorities because of their associations with the pre-World War II fascist party Iron Guard.[2]

Entrepreneurship[edit]

Real estate business[edit]

Becali became a millionaire through an exchange of land with the Romanian Army, dubbed by the Romanian press as suspicious, as the Army did not need the land it received and the land he received in exchange was worth much more.

The deal consisted in Becali giving the Army a 21.5-hectare plot in Ștefăneștii de Jos (about 15 km from Bucharest) in exchange for a 20.9-hectare plot in Băneasa-Pipera, in Northern Bucharest.[3] As the real estate prices skyrocketed in the capital, he sold the land to some companies that built residential areas.

In 2007, it was revealed that in 1998, when Becali sent the offer to the Romanian Army, he was not the owner of the property in Ștefăneștii de Jos, buying it only after it was clear that the deal would be signed. Also, the Army was not legally allowed to give away the Pipera plot, because it was claimed by former owners.[4]

The affair was investigated in 2006 by the National Anticorruption Directorate (NAD).[5] In July 2007, the NAD started to investigate a transaction between Becali and the daughter of Defence Minister Victor Babiuc, involving land in Pipera which was sold for US$300 per square meter.[6]

Ownership of FCSB[edit]

Becali joined the General Shareholders' Council of the Steaua București football team at the end of the 1990s, during the presidency of businessman Viorel Păunescu. Step by step, he tried to eliminate other possible candidates and gather all the club's shares. He obtained 51% of the shares on 6 February 2003 and he bought another 15% toward the end of the year 2003.[7]

On October 17, 2005, his entire fortune was impounded by the National Fiscal Authority (ANAF) for debts totaling US$11,000,000. However, Becali sued the ANAF and won the trial, and subsequently the order of seizure was lifted.[8] He was however able to avoid paying the taxes by transferring the assets of Steaua to a newly formed company, AFC Steaua București, allowing the old association to go bankrupt.[9] As of 2007, Becali detains no official link to the club, as he gradually renounced his shares in favour of his nephews.[10]

Sunday, August 21, 2022

ku klux Klan

 The Ku Klux Klan (/ˌk klʌks ˈklæn, ˌkj-/),[c] commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Catholics, and Native Americans[38][39] as well as immigrants, leftists, homosexuals,[40][41] Muslims,[42] abortion providers[43][44] and atheists.[45][46]

The Klan has existed in three distinct eras. Each has advocated extremist reactionary positions such as white nationalismanti-immigration and—especially in later iterations—Nordicism,[47][48] antisemitismanti-CatholicismProhibitionright-wing populismanti-communismhomophobia,[49][50][51][52][53] Islamophobia, anti-progressivism and anti-atheism. The first two Klans used terrorism—both physical assault and murder—against politically active blacks and their allies in the Southern United States in the late 1860s. All three movements have called for the "purification" of American society, and are all considered far-right extremist organizations.[54][55][56][57] In each era, membership was secret and estimates of the total were highly exaggerated by both friends and enemies.

The first Klan was established in the wake of the American Civil War and was a defining organization of the Reconstruction era. Organized in numerous chapters across the Southern United States, federal law enforcement suppressed it around 1871. It sought to overthrow the Republican state governments in the South, especially by using voter intimidation and targeted violence against African-American leaders. Each chapter was autonomous and highly secretive about membership and plans. Members made their own, often colorful, costumes: robes, masks and conical hats, designed to be terrifying and to hide their identities.[58][59]

The second Klan started in 1915 as a small group in Georgia. It grew after 1920 and flourished nationwide in the early and mid-1920s, including urban areas of the Midwest and West. Taking inspiration from D. W. Griffith's 1915 silent film The Birth of a Nation, which mythologized the founding of the first Klan, it employed marketing techniques and a popular fraternal organization structure. Rooted in local Protestant communities, it sought to maintain white supremacy, often took a pro-Prohibition and pro-compulsory public education[60][61][62] stance, and it opposed Jews, while also stressing its opposition to the alleged political power of the pope and the Catholic Church. This second Klan flourished both in the south and northern states; it was funded by initiation fees and selling its members a standard white costume. The chapters did not have dues. It used K-words which were similar to those used by the first Klan, while adding cross burnings and mass parades to intimidate others. It rapidly declined in the latter half of the 1920s.

The third and current manifestation of the KKK emerged after 1950, in the form of localized and isolated groups that use the KKK name. They have focused on opposition to the civil rights movement, often using violence and murder to suppress activists. This manifestation is classified as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.[63] As of 2016, the Anti-Defamation League puts total KKK membership nationwide at around 3,000, while the Southern Poverty Law Center puts it at 6,000 members total.[64]

The second and third incarnations of the Ku Klux Klan made frequent references to a false mythologized perception of America's "Anglo-Saxon" blood, hearkening back to 19th-century nativism.[65] Although members of the KKK swear to uphold Christian morality, Christian denominations widely denounce them.[66]

Overview

First KKK

Depiction of Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina in 1870, based on a photograph taken under the supervision of a federal officer who seized Klan costumes

The first Klan was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee, on December 24, 1865,[67] by six former officers of the Confederate army:[68] Frank McCord, Richard Reed, John Lester, John Kennedy, J. Calvin Jones, and James Crowe.[69] It started as a fraternal social club inspired at least in part by the then largely defunct Sons of Malta. It borrowed parts of the initiation ceremony from that group, with the same purpose: "ludicrous initiations, the baffling of public curiosity, and the amusement for members were the only objects of the Klan", according to Albert Stevens in 1907.[70] The manual of rituals was printed by Laps D. McCord of Pulaski.[71] The Klan also culturally appropriated the Spanish capirote hood.[72]

According to The Cyclopædia of Fraternities (1907), "Beginning in April, 1867, there was a gradual transformation. ... The members had conjured up a veritable Frankenstein. They had played with an engine of power and mystery, though organized on entirely innocent lines, and found themselves overcome by a belief that something must lie behind it all—that there was, after all, a serious purpose, a work for the Klan to do."[70]

Although there was little organizational structure above the local level, similar groups rose across the South and adopted the same name and methods.[clarification needed][73] Klan groups spread throughout the South as an insurgent movement promoting resistance and white supremacy during the Reconstruction Era. For example, Confederate veteran John W. Morton founded a chapter in Nashville, Tennessee.[74] As a secret vigilante group, the Klan targeted freedmen and their allies; it sought to restore white supremacy by threats and violence, including murder. "They targeted white Northern leaders, Southern sympathizers and politically active blacks."[75] In 1870 and 1871, the federal government passed the Enforcement Acts, which were intended to prosecute and suppress Klan crimes.[76]

The first Klan had mixed results in terms of achieving its objectives. It seriously weakened the black political leadership through its use of assassinations and threats of violence, and it drove some people out of politics. On the other hand, it caused a sharp backlash, with passage of federal laws that historian Eric Foner says were a success in terms of "restoring order, reinvigorating the morale of Southern Republicans, and enabling blacks to exercise their rights as citizens".[77] Historian George C. Rable argues that the Klan was a political failure and therefore was discarded by the Democratic Party leaders of the South. He says:

The Klan declined in strength in part because of internal weaknesses; its lack of central organization and the failure of its leaders to control criminal elements and sadists. More fundamentally, it declined because it failed to achieve its central objective – the overthrow of Republican state governments in the South.[78]

After the Klan was suppressed, similar insurgent paramilitary groups arose that were explicitly directed at suppressing Republican voting and turning Republicans out of office: the White League, which started in Louisiana in 1874; and the Red Shirts, which started in Mississippi and developed chapters in the Carolinas. For instance, the Red Shirts are credited with helping elect Wade Hampton as governor in South Carolina. They were described as acting as the military arm of the Democratic Party and are attributed with helping white Democrats regain control of state legislatures throughout the South.[79]

Second KKK

KKK rally near Chicago in the 1920s

In 1915, the second Klan was founded atop Stone Mountain, Georgia, by William Joseph Simmons. While Simmons relied on documents from the original Klan and memories of some surviving elders, the revived Klan was based significantly on the wildly popular film The Birth of a Nation. The earlier Klan had not worn the white costumes and had not burned crosses; these aspects were introduced in the book on which the film was based. When the film was shown in Atlanta in December of that year, Simmons and his new klansmen paraded to the theater in robes and pointed hoods – many on robed horses – just like in the film. These mass parades became another hallmark of the new Klan that had not existed in the original Reconstruction-era organization.[80]

Beginning in 1921, it adopted a modern business system of using full-time, paid recruiters and it appealed to new members as a fraternal organization, of which many examples were flourishing at the time. The national headquarters made its profit through a monopoly on costume sales, while the organizers were paid through initiation fees. It grew rapidly nationwide at a time of prosperity.

God

This article is about the belief of a supreme being in monotheistic thought. For the general faith in a supreme being, see  Deity . For God ...