Religious Fundamentalists: America vs. the Middle East

This is magnificent. There are only two problems with it.

First, it doesn't make its point in 60 seconds or less and

second, the people who should see it won't and worse, even if they did, they either wouldn't get it or would deny there's any truth to it.

For the rest of us, enjoy.

The Common, Repeated, Everyday Use of Fear in America

It's gotten old.

Really old.

We should be smarter than to let anyone do this to us.

On that "Duck Dynasty" brouhaha

First, yesterday, there was this:

'Duck Dynasty's' Phil Robertson suspended for comments about gays

Then, in the same interview, this little jewel was discovered:

'Duck Dynasty' Star Phil Robertson Claims Black People Were 'Happy' Pre-Civil Rights

So this came up today, on FB:

 

 

I'd think he'd be upset--maybe plenty so--at this comparison but, come on, it seems extremely accurate and fair.

 

 



Quote of the day--for a Sunday

 

Oops.

 

 

 

Muslim extremists hurting their own cause

Did you see this rather big story from England today?

Chilling video of London attacker explaining machete attack

The report is that "..two men attacked a man believed to be a British soldier in the London neighborhood of Woolwich, but U.K. officials are already investigating it as a possible act of terrorism.

One of the two men are quoted as saying "We swear by Almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reasons we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day. This British soldier is an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth. We apologise that women had to see this today but in our lands our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government. They don’t care about you."

And all I can say is that with the reports from around the world, that so many Muslims strapped bombs to themselves and blew themselves and innocents up, time after time, their fellow countrymen, frequently, and now this, it's all creating images of Muslims and Islamists that far too many people across in many countries, Americans, British, all kinds of people, all over the world, that they think "they're all like that."

This is going nowhere good for them, that's for sure, and for too many of them, they don't seem to care. How they expect this to go well for them, I don't know or understand.

In the meantime, here's something that won't get reported enough, also from today:

Woolwich attack: Religious groups condemn attack

And from this article:

...Muslim groups have condemned the attack after a video captured of the suspected attackers saying: “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you.”

A statement from the Muslim Council of Britain said: “This is a truly barbaric act that has no basis in Islam and we condemn this unreservedly. Our thoughts are with the victim and his family.

“We understand the victim is a serving member of the Armed Forces. Muslims have long served in this country’s Armed Forces, proudly and with honour.

“This attack on a member of the Armed Forces is dishonourable, and no cause justifies this murder.”

The group called for vigilance and solidarity between “all our communities, Muslim and non-Muslim”, and for police to “calm tensions”.

Mohammed Shafiq from the Ramadhan Foundation said: “I wish to condemn the evil and barbaric crime carried out today in Woolwich.

“Our immediate thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims. From whatever angle you see today’s attack, it was at every level evil.

“We must allow the police to gather all the facts before unnecessary speculation and wait for the facts before determining its impact on our country.

“But what happens in the days to come, London and our nation will come together and will not be divided. The terrorists will never win and succeed in their evil plans.

“But tonight we think of the family of that soldier killed.”

So let's keep that in mind,  too, if we can. 

Don't think all Muslims are for this bararity.

Purely by fluke, I ran across this flip side of the coin, so to speak, this evening, too:

British soldier jailed for stabbing 10-year-old Afghan boy - Telegraph

But that's different, right?

Right?

Dear Religion,

The Republican Party may be for you!

Black in America

What it's been like--as near as I can tell, since I'm white--to be a Black American in the last 100 years, for a lot of them, if not all:

--You may, or may not, be hired for a job;

--If you are hired for a job, it may well be for an entry-level and/or low-paying job;

--The job may also be either dirty or looked down on or both (e.g., janitor, etc.);

--If you get hired, it is likely for low-paying work;

--Consequently, because you are quite likely paid little, you also likely can't afford much of a house for your home. It will not be big, it will not be grand and it cannot be in a more "exclusive" area, if you can even afford to buy. You may have to rent;

--If you need or want a loan for a home, the chances are high you could be charged a higher interest rate by the bank or financial company (see link below);

--If you want or need a car, the car dealer may well charge you a higher price than he or she would charge a white person--just because they can;

--Many white people in your country--and even Hispanics--may well assume you are "dirty" and/or threatening and/or ignorant, just because of your color;

--One religion, at minimum, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (also known as the Mormons) had as their official policy, from the pulpit, until as late as 1979, that you, as a Black American, could belong to the religion, sure, and they'd take your money but you could never become part of their higher "priesthood" because of your color. Also, the reason is that it's based on a passage from the Bible (Go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_and_mark_of_Cain). Further, some religions--mostly fundamentalist "Christian" ones, still believe this, either formally or informally;

--Finally, to cap all this off, as if all that isn't enough, far too many people of your own country is far too likely to think you are poor because you are lazy and that it's your own fault.

The indignity.

Try understanding all this, let along living with those kinds of pressures.

This, then, is why far too many people just don't "get it" about discrimination and the status of Black Americans in the United States.

Links: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/fi-mo-wells-bias-20120712,0,4185138.story

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/02/18/us-usa-farmers-pigford-idUSTRE61H5XD20100218

http://www.slaverybyanothername.com/

Now, time and money wasted by Kansas Governor Brownback

In a recurring thread here, this is number 3 in the series of "Ways Government Representatives Waste Time and Money":

Brownback signs bill banning use of Islamic law

Critics called measure discriminatory, unnecessary

TOPEKA, Kan. - "Gov. Sam Brownback has signed into law a bill aimed at keeping Kansas courts or government agencies from basing decisions on Islamic or other foreign legal codes.

Brownback's office notified the Senate of his action Friday, but he actually signed the measure Monday. The new law will take effect in July.

Muslim groups had urged him to veto the measure, arguing it promotes discrimination. Supporters say it simply restates American values.

Supporters have worried about Shariah law being applied in Kansas courts. However, they also point out that the bill doesn't specifically mention codes within the Islamic legal system."

Forget all this:

"Instead, it says courts or other tribunals can't base rulings on any foreign law or legal system that would not grant rights guaranteed by state and U.S."

Forget the fact that our Constitution forbids church and state working together.

Except they can't forget it, can they? Since they--Right Wing, fundamentalist Christians--want to shove THEIR religion down our figurative throats, every chance they get, regarding abortion or whatever, through our state and even Federal laws, eh?

Bloody hypocrites.

Link: http://www.kmbc.com/news/kansas-city/Brownback-signs-bill-banning-use-of-Islamic-law/-/11664182/14189664/-/4dfk7k/-/index.html

Equality in America and this Sunday's sermons

Can you imagine some of the sermons this Sunday morning--especially in the fundamentalist churches--and how ugly, angry and hateful they're going to get, given the news that this President came out squarely for same-sex marriage equality (read: equality)?

A former GOP staffer writes on the current GOP: Where they--and we--are now

"Pandering to fundamentalism is a full-time vocation in the GOP. Beginning in the 1970s, religious cranks ceased simply to be a minor public nuisance in this country and grew into the major element of the Republican rank and file. Pat Robertson's strong showing in the 1988 Iowa Caucus signaled the gradual merger of politics and religion in the party. The results are all around us: if the American people poll more like Iranians or Nigerians than Europeans or Canadians on questions of evolution versus creationism, scriptural inerrancy, the existence of angels and demons, and so forth, that result is due to the rise of the religious right, its insertion into the public sphere by the Republican Party and the consequent normalizing of formerly reactionary or quaint beliefs. Also around us is a prevailing anti-intellectualism and hostility to science; it is this group that defines "low-information voter" - or, perhaps, "misinformation voter." The Constitution to the contrary notwithstanding, there is now a de facto religious test for the presidency: major candidates are encouraged (or coerced) to "share their feelings" about their "faith" in a revelatory speech; or, some televangelist like Rick Warren dragoons the candidates (as he did with Obama and McCain in 2008) to debate the finer points of Christology, with Warren himself, of course, as the arbiter. Politicized religion is also the sheet anchor of the culture wars. But how did the whole toxic stew of GOP beliefs - economic royalism, militarism and culture wars cum fundamentalism - come completely to displace an erstwhile civilized Eisenhower Republicanism? It is my view that the rise of politicized religious fundamentalism (which is a subset of the decline of rational problem solving in America) may have been the key ingredient of the takeover of the Republican Party. For politicized religion provides a substrate of beliefs that rationalizes - at least in the minds of followers - all three of the GOP's main tenets. Televangelists have long espoused the health-and-wealth/name-it-and-claim it gospel. If you are wealthy, it is a sign of God's favor. If not, too bad! But don't forget to tithe in any case. This rationale may explain why some economically downscale whites defend the prerogatives of billionaires. The GOP's fascination with war is also connected with the fundamentalist mindset. The Old Testament abounds in tales of slaughter - God ordering the killing of the Midianite male infants and enslavement of the balance of the population, the divinely-inspired genocide of the Canaanites, the slaying of various miscreants with the jawbone of an ass - and since American religious fundamentalist seem to prefer the Old Testament to the New (particularly that portion of the New Testament known as the Sermon on the Mount), it is but a short step to approving war as a divinely inspired mission. This sort of thinking has led, inexorably, to such phenomena as Jerry Falwell once writing that God is Pro-War. It is the apocalyptic frame of reference of fundamentalists, their belief in an imminent Armageddon, that psychologically conditions them to steer this country into conflict, not only on foreign fields (some evangelicals thought Saddam was the Antichrist and therefore a suitable target for cruise missiles), but also in the realm of domestic political controversy. It is hardly surprising that the most adamant proponent of the view that there was no debt ceiling problem was Michele Bachmann, the darling of the fundamentalist right. What does it matter, anyway, if the country defaults? - we shall presently abide in the bosom of the Lord." -- Mike Lofgren, writer, member of the Republican Party and former staff member of the US Congress. Links: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/mike-lofgren; https://www.google.com/#hl=en&gs_nf=1&tok=ExReM5_dSQ1A97X7NzYPcw&cp=8&gs_id=w&xhr=t&q=mike+lofgren&pf=p&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&pbx=1&oq=mike+lof&aq=0&aqi=g4&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&fp=1&biw=1249&bih=560&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&cad=b

Quote of the day

"I don't want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it." -- Rev. Billy Graham, Parade magazine, 1981

To the nutty fundamentalists from Topeka

Dear Westboro Baptist Church,

In a few days, there will be a funeral you can protest. It will only be a memorial service but, just this once, we won't try to stop you.

Sincerely,

America





(Thanks and a special hat tip to long-time friend Dennis for this)

Muslims of the world

Moderate Muslims need to speak out against the extremist Muslims of the world who are blowing up and killing or maiming so many other people of the world.

It needs to be said.

It needs to be done.

This shouldn't be a radical or controversial idea at all.

Sure, it's being done to an extent but the voice/voices of these moderate Muslims is/are absolutely not loud or convincing enough, as they should be.

I hope this starts soon.

Link:  http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=muslim+terrorists&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=a404a1c26a268bba

Next up on the "Democracy March": Algeria

You saw it here first:

Algeria braces for pro-democracy protest


ALGIERS, Algeria – Hundreds of police began taking up positions the night before a pro-democracy protest march in Algiers by militants who have vowed to defy an official ban.
 
The planned march on Saturday is aimed at pressing for reforms to push this oil- and gas-rich North African giant toward democracy.

The weeks-long uprising in Egypt that forced Hosni Mubarak to abandon the presidency after 30 years was bound to fuel the hopes of Algerians seeking change — as did the "people's revolution" in neighboring Tunisia. A month of deadly uprisings there pushed Zine El Abidine Ben Ali into exile Jan. 14.

However, many Algerians fear any prospect of conflict after years of a brutal insurgency by Islamist extremists that has left an estimated 200,.000 dead. There is no specific call by organizers of the protest march to oust President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

With scattered strikes and clashes, including five days of rioting in early January, the atmosphere in Algiers has been tense.

There have been numerous copy-cat suicides, and attempted suicides, in Algeria like the self-immolation attempt by a young man that set off the Tunisian protests in mid-December.

The Coordination for Democratic Change in Algeria, an umbrella group of human rights activists, unionists, lawyers and others, insists the march will take place despite numerous warnings by authorities to stay out of the streets.

Buses and vans filled with armed police were posted at strategic points along the march route and around Algiers, including at the "Maison de la Presse," a small village in Algiers where newspapers have their headquarters.

The daily El Watan said Friday that barrages were thrown up on roads leading to Algiers, apparently to stop busloads of potential demonstrators expected to descend on the capital.

In a clear bid to placate militants, Algerian authorities announced last week that a state of emergency in place since 1992, at the start of the Islamist insurgency, will be lifted in the "very near future." However, it maintained a ban on demonstrations in the capital. Authorities offered to allow Saturday's demonstrators to rally in a meeting hall.

The army's decision to cancel this nation's first multi-party legislative elections in January 1992 to thward a likely victory by a Muslim fundamentalist party set off the insurgency. Scattered violence continues.

It doesn't sound as though this one is going as well as the one in Egypt.

Here's hoping it goes well.


Enjoy your weekend, y'all.

Link to original post:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110212/ap_on_re_af/af_algeria_protest

Conservatives vs. Conservatives and the Religious vs. the Religious

There is a terrific article out yesterday in the Kansas City Star about "The two leading Republican candidates for Kansas’ open Senate seat Tuesday night clashed on a central question: Who is the strongest conservative in the race? And this, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what has been going on in this country and the world far too much in the last decade or more. If you're "Conservative", you have to be ultra-conservative--and prove it, in both religion and politics. If you're a Christian, by gosh, you want to prove that you're out-doing all the other religious people in the world, let alone your own church. I had a roommate once who was raised in an uber-religious, Christian, right-wing family. Fortunately for him--and it was the only way I could have lived with him--he got an education and got away from all that crap. But here's the funny thing--"Mom and Dad" raised the kids to be ultra-religious. Predictable, right? So the other son (there were 2 boys) becomes a minister, for heaven's sake (pun intended). It just couldn't get any better than that, right? But here's the rub: Sonny-boy Minister becomes Uber-Uber right-wing, religious and conservative. What a hoot. He thinks he's more--probably much more--religious, "close to God", conservative, fundamentalist and "holy" than the folks. They've been outdone. It's insane. Each one trying to outdo the other, in a competitive, religious way. And that is what is, fortunately for the rest of us clear thinkers, tearing apart the Republican Party, what with the breakaway Libertarians and now the "Tea Party", etc., etc. They all want to go further "Right" and outdo the other. And that's just what Todd Tiahrt and Jerry Moran did last night, apparently, at this debate. And that's what the Sunnis and Shii'as do in the Middle East, in Iraq and thereabouts. Only they kill each other. You'd just be very hard pressed to get the Republicans, either of these 2 candidates or any Christian or group of Christians to see the similarities between them and the Muslims killing one another. Did you know there is incredibly little difference in doctrine between the Sunnis and Shii'a Muslims? Yeah, there is. BUT THEY KILL EACH OTHER. It's insane but it's what they do and, to date, there is no stopping them. Same with Republicans, in a lesser way (--though no killing. Yet. That we know of). They keep shredding their political party but there's no stopping them, God bless their shiny little heads. We got rid of Communism, virtually worldwide and its supposedly life-threatening nature and at first I thought it was going to be the gays that would get demonized to the exclusion of all others but no. It's conservatives and fundamentalists in religions and political parties that are tearing each other apart. And you know what? May they have at it as long as they wish. Link to original story: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/07/06/2067255/moran-and-tiahrt-debate-whos-the.html

Arizona and Iran: A lot in common

First it was Arizona legalizing profiling and arrests of Hispanics and Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, in their quest to purify their state. We all heard about that.

Now, Arizonans can see how much they have in common with that beacon of intelligence, open-mindedness and acceptance, Iran, by coincidence, since they may begin arresting women there who are suntanned , since more scantily-clothed women are against fundamentalist Islamic law.

Stay classy, Arizona.

Classy, open-minded, intelligent and accepting.