Monday, August 23, 2010

The posthuman and the subhuman

[Image from stacymetapossum.bl]

This from "Why dogs go after mail carriers," by Garret Keizer, Harper's magazine, September 2010, pp. 6-9.

It is a brilliant defense of our U.S. postal system.

"One looks for the questions that define one's times. Perhaps the key question of our own, a question that applies both politically and environmentally and which, oddly enough, seem related to the fate of the post office, is this: Do we want to be angels, or do we want to be human beings?"

"People who talk about our 'materialistic society" and about getting back to "spiritual values" strike me as having a right sense of indignation and a poor sense of analysis. The delusion of our society is not so much its materialism as its faux spiritualism, its desire to make a heaven on earth, not as a place free of needless suffering and full of what Barbara Ehrenreich calls 'collective joy,' but as one in which the elect live everlastingly and communicate telepathically while flying in disembodied splendor above the heads of the Mexicans mowing the lawn. Already one hears futuristic blather about a 'posthuman' age. I'd say that I hope I die before I see it, except that I have seen it. Your great-grandmother saw it. The posthuman is merely the subhuman that results whenever people aspire to the superhuman. ...

"How about just-human? I don't want to be a seraph or a sunbeam but a citizen, that is, to live in a physical body and a geographical community bounded by time and space and served in full equality by incarnate citizens... [...] I'll keep my email, thank you, but let my 'primary communications carrier' be a unionized worker with his feet on the sidewalk and no wings on his feet. If I have to wait an extra day or two for a parcel, I can bear it. I've already waited half a century for national health care, and I am likely to be as dead as an undeliverable letter by the time all its provisions go into effect."

Keith Olbermann: Countdown - Extreme Views: CNN books Franklin Graham

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Threading the needle

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Saturday, August 21, 2010

Remember the victims

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Is the rising Islamophobia the new anti-Semitism?

First of all, the damn thing is not a mosque, it is a community center with a prayer room.

But it has become "ground zero" for a rising tide of hatred across these United States. It seems that many of our "upstanding conservative" citizens are not happy unless they can hate someone or something with their entire being.

Many hate Obama or Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi. Some hate all progressives. Most hate "libruls." A whole lot of them hate any religion but their own - which is usually a sect of Christianity. But of late they have come to hate Islam and Muslims with an eerie sort of passion reminiscent of humanity's worst historical hatreds.


Joshua Holland, who, I must confess, is one of my favorite political writers, has posted an informative and frightening article at AlterNet, titled "Fallout of Hate Is Spreading Across America from 9/11 Site."

He begins with this insight:

"[...] the feverish discourse about Muslim's role in American society is not about the proposal to build an Islamic community center a couple of blocks from the World Trade Center site. Park 51, as it's being called, merely let an ugly genie out of the bottle. The dark stain of Islamophobia had spread far and wide long before the controversy erupted."

The Mr. Holland provides numerous examples: Last May, there was a pipebomb attack at an Islamic Center in Jacksonville, Florida (which got no notice by the national media) and a firearms attack at a mosque in Miami last year. "Mosques have been vandalized or set aflame in Brownstone, Michigan; Nashville, Tennessee; Arlington, Texas (where the mosque was first vandalized and then later targeted by arsonists); Taylor, South Carolina; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Eugene, Oregon; Cape Girardeau, Missouri; Tempe, Arizona; and in both Northern and Southern California. A mosque in a suburb of Chicago has been vandalized four times in recent years."

Holland goes on to document numerous incidents in which people have met bodily harm by Muslim-haters.


These frenzied and crazed "perpetrators of ... hate crimes" have been spurred on "by cynical fearmongers on the Right. Holland notes that Daniel Luban, in Tablet magazine, suggests "the dark spread of Islamophobia has become 'the new Anti-Semitism.''

I think he's right, and there is a definite resemblance between what is happening in our country now and what happened in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. For example, the Lt. Gov. of Tennessee, Ron Ramsey, doesn't think Muslims should have freedom of religion. Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, probably wouldn't go that far, but his idea of freedom of religion does not include the building of a "mosque" in NYC!

Newt Gingrich, who has become ever more unhinged, "compared the organizers of the Park 51 project ... (including the imam who was sent by none other than George W. Bush to represent the United States in its outreach tothe Muslim World) with the Nazis."

Brian Fischer, representing the frenetic, christianist, dominionist American Family Association, would deny all permits to build mosques in the U.S. because "each Islamic mosque is dedicated to the overthrow of the American government."

A rightwingnut radio host in Florida, Michael Berry, said "If you do build a mosque, I hope somebody blows it up..."

The hysteria is growing. Just this morning I read of a construction worker in NYC who vowed not to be involved in building the Islamic community center as a way of protest. No doubt others will climb on that bandwagon!


There's much more in Holland's article, including commentary on how the Republicans plan to use Islamophobia to further their cause against the Democrats in upcoming elections.

You can read all of it here. And weep for what has become of the "home of the brave and the land of the free."

Friday, August 20, 2010

Lying Christians and the lies they tell

[Photo of Jan Markell at a conference with Joseph Farah]

Onenewsnow is "Christian" news organization, owned and operated by the American Family Association's "news network." The American Family Association, founded by Don Wildmon, a freaky Methodist preacher and now run by his son, Tim, is most famous for boycotting every company and organization that dares to contradict the radical rightwingnut christianist views of the AFA. The AFA is perhaps best known for trying to bring down companies that grant equal rights to gays/lesbians.

With that in mind, one would expect that people who work for Onenewsnow would not hesitate to tell tall tales if such tales would enhance their ability to impose their christianist agenda on the citizens of the United States and bring down our president, Barack Obama.


Chad Groening in an article titled "President's sentiments on mosque made clear," quotes a woman he claims to be "A Messianic Jewish leader and supporter of Israel [who] thinks President Obama's recent comments clearly illustrate his sentiments are with Islam -- just as he promised in his book The Audacity of Hope."

This Messianic Jewish leader is Jan Markell, who runs Olive Tree Ministries. (You can get a better feel for what she is about if you know she associates with Joseph Farah, the batshit crazy editor of WorldNet Daily!) She has the audacity to say (as do rightwing christianist websites all over the Internet) that Obama wrote this in "one of his books":

"When ill wind blows, I will always stand with the Muslims."

Note, however, that Groening references an "editor's note" - "Actual quote: 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds whift in an ugly direction.'"

That's not the actual quote either. Groening's a liar, too!


Markell, liar that she is, goes on to try to smooth things over a tad: "I am not one who is saying that Barack Obama is a Muslim; we don't know that. But the fact is his sentiment is with the Muslims of the world, and his sentiment is with the Muslims of Manhattan. I'm quite sure that he would be very okay with a mosque just a stones-throw away from 9/11."

What a witch, this Markell. Yes, we do. in fact, know of Obama's religious faith: He is a Christian. A practicing Christian! As far as his "sentiment" about Muslims, well, this is just simply stupid. As president of our very large and very diverse country which is comprised of a multitude of races and ethnic groups and religions, his sentiment must be with all of them and each of them! That's what a president does, if he or she is any damn good!


But neither Markell or Groening care for truth! It isn't difficult to look up the quote in Obama's book, The Audacity of Hope, to find out if, indeed, he really said that. The full quote is on page 261:

"Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from their neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific reassurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political wings shift in an ugly direction."


Now, if you can find a more perfect and beautiful sentiment by an American president on how to deal with threatened minorities, I'd like to see it. This is what leadership is about. This is what it means to care about ALL the people in our country.

You may remember the story of Peter denying his Lord three times in the courtyard the night of Jesus' trial as told by the anonymous writer of the gospel of John. Peter was afraid for his life. He had a reason.

Markell, Groening and all the other cutthroat christianist asshats who continue to misquote and thus libel our president have no excuse. They continually deny their Lord for their own gain and dream of political power!

The U.S. Evangelical Christian Army - Soldiers punished for not attending a Christian concert

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Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.



We've written previously about how "evangelical" Christian leaders in the U.S. Army push their particular religious persuasion upon the "troops" due to the belief they are engaged in some kind of "holy war" against the enemies of God and because they are convinced that anyone who has not been "saved" by confessing Jesus to be the messiah who died for the sins of the world, etc., etc., is going to burn forever in hell. They are, therefore, in their piddly little minds, doing the work of God.

What this means to our soldiers in their day to day life has once again come to light, primarily due to the fine work of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Chris Rodda, head researcher for the MRFF and author of the book, Liars For Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History, has the story which begins like this:


"For the past several years, two U.S. Army posts in Virginia, Fort Eustis and Fort Lee, have been putting on a series of what are called Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concerts. As I've written in a number of other posts, 'spiritual fitness' is just the military's new term for promoting religion, particularly evangelical Christianity. [...]

"On May 13, 2010, about eighty soldiers, stationed at Fort Eustis while attending a training course, were punished for opting out of attending one of those Christian concerts. The headliner at this concert was a Christian rock band called BarlowGirl, a band that describes itself as taking 'an aggressive, almost warrior-like stance when it comes to spreading the gospel and serving God.'"


Rodda notes that the Army post's newspaper, the Fort Eustis Wheel, ran an article subsequent to the concert which included this paragraph:

"Following the Apostle Paul's message to the Ephesians in the Bible, Christian rock music's edgy, all-girl band Barlow Girl brought the armor of God to the warriors and families of Fort Eustis during another installment of the Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concert Series May 13 at Jacobs Theater."

It should be noted that this Concert Series "was the brainchild of Maj. Gen. James E. Chambers, who, according to an article on the Army.mil website, 'was reborn as a Christian' at the age of sixteen."


Please read Ms. Rodda's complete article here. The details will (or should) make you scream in anger and frustration! And it should raise many questions which desperately need to be answered. Ms. Rodda goes into much more detail on the issues involved, but there is really one major issue:

The U.S. military has no business promoting any religion whatsoever!!! This is verboten, invalid, dangerous and absolutely stupid, not to mention unconstitutional!

What really makes the blood boil is the fact that the soldiers cannot easily opt out of a program deemed "important" or imperative by the commanding officer. At Fort Eustis those who did so were disciplined!


Let's hope these violations of our Constitution and military procedure come to the attention of the Commander in Chief, President Barack Obama. He could, I believe, put a halt to this nonsense with the stroke of a pen. The wingnuts on the right, of course, would go out of their freaking minds, but they do that no matter what he does or says. So he might as well do the right thing and let the chips fall where they may!

More on the insane Sharron Angle

This from a post by Steve Benen at AlterNet...

Back in 1992, Sharron Angle ran for a county school board and was elected. A really big problem arose: one of the high schools used black athletic jerseys! Angle thought black athletic jerseys were "un-Christian and wicked." They were subsequently changed to a less "offensive" color.

In a previous post today, I said Sharron Angle is insane.

This, I believe, is another example of said insanity.

Or, to quote one Jon Chait:

"One of the reasons I've been fascinated with Sharron Angle's Senate campaign is that she is not merely a candidate with extremely radical views, like Rand Paul, she inhabits an ideological grey area where radicalism starts to become indistinguishable with actual mental illness. ..."


Or, to put it more starkly and more truthfully - Sharron Angle is insane.


Read the entire article here.

Raiding Social Security for giveaways to millionaires?

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Sharron Angle is Insane!


The fact that someone like Sharron Angle can become a serious candidate for the United States Senate indicates how far we have fallen and how deep is our trouble! Sharron Angle is as stupid as she is ignorant, which is totally; a woman who would be much more comfortable living in the 16th century rather than the 21st.

Jill Lawrence, writing at Politics Daily, discloses what Angle said in an April radio interview with Rick Wiles of TruNews Christian Radio.

First off, she described her contest with Harry Reid as "a war of ideology, a war of thoughts and of faith. And we need people to really stand for faith and trust, not hope and change." That's the kind of thinking you would find in a sixth-grader's essay in a Christian school. It makes "faith and trust exclusive of hope and change," which is a false dichotomy and thus makes no sense at all.

Obviously, it's a pathetic attempt to denigrate our President who campaigned on the themes of hope and change.

Furthermore, Ms. Angle, being a Christianist dominionist, obviously believes this country is, or should be, a Christian country. She knows not of our historical underpinnings, and she blows off our Constitution. We have too many people who "stand for faith and trust" and they are the ones who have brought this country to its knees. If there were a God, she would make this crystal clear to Ms. Angle, in spite of the fact that Angle's brain is pretty much non-functional.


It gets worse. During the interview, Angle tells the world she thinks the U.S. is a Christian country and should be ruled by her God. She said [to Wiles] 'these programs that you mentioned -- that [President] Obama has going with Reid and [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi pushing them forward -- are all entitlement programs built to make government our God. And that's really, what's happening in this country is a violation of the 1st Commandment. We have become a country drenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government. We're supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not ... our government.'"

In most other countries, and in another time in this country, the laughter directed at Angle would be so loud it would drown out Rush Limbaargher! And she would be consigned to a place reserved for really stupid people, never to be seen or heard from again.


And just when you think it can't get any worse ... Angle, because the small brain she possesses is consumed with a fever, believes she is God's candidate and doing God's will. Her desire to attain a U.S. Senate seat is all part of God's larger plan for her life. She has been called by God to do this. "I have watched Him walk with me through politics and help me to see the pitfalls of the political machinery, the seduction of the party, and even those outside the party, the lobbyists -- all of that to say that the Lord shows me daily where He wants me to walk."

This fruitcake, who, in her arrogance actually believes she has been "called" by some God somewhere, insists the Senate is not in the business of creating jobs. She thinks Medicare and Social Security should be abolished, along with the Department of Energy, the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency.


Perhaps I need to clarify my rhetoric. I've called her stupid and ignorant, and I think that's true. But I am forced to further conclude that she is insane. Unfortunately, that does not disqualify her to run for the U.S. Senate. She may win, and take a seat amidst that august body. And that will mean, to our collective detriment, we'll have one more crazy fool to contend with at the top level of our government.

But maybe there's an out. If she wins and takes the oath of office, she must be arrested for perjury! She does not believe in the Constitution and her taking an oath to uphold that Constitution would make her a perjurer! She would have to be denied her seat in Congress because she won her race under false pretenses and does not believe in the government of which she wants to be a part.


Is this a great country, or what?

I Just Know

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Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Jon Stewart - The Repubs should be paying FAUX News

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Yahweh's Amazing Miracle

Pat Condell: The faith of idiots

Tim Tebow in the NFL

(Please click on cartoon to embiggen.)

Word is that Tim Tebow suffered a rib injury during a practice session. We certainly wish no harm to come to him in his new pro career, but we can't help but wonder why his god didn't keep him injury free so he could continue to proclaim god's word on the football field.

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

And god said "Woof!"


The varieties of nonsensical christianist fundamentalism (especially among the pentecostals) continue to amaze me even as they proliferate and mushroom like evil mutants.

Up in Toronto, Canada, there was a "church that housed the Toronto Blessing revival." But this revival group got so big (2,000 members that gather in 11 locations in the city) that they are now busy exporting "the values of the renewal through a new network of churches."

Just what we need!

I'm not sure what these "values" are although Steve Long, senior pastor of the Toronto church speaks of "knowing God's love and deepening one's intimacy with the Father," whatever that means in the day-to-day. It also seems to mean "soaking" (praying and worshiping) for hours and hours at a time.

Now I don't care about any of this and actually I think if there were a god, he or she would crush all this foolishness pronto! I think any god worth his or her salt would see to it that the time and money spent by these preachers and churches advancing their own glory be spent helping people in need.


But here's the part of the story that caught my attention: The Toronto Blessing was begun in 1994 by John and Carol Arnott. It was a small church named the Toronto Airport Vineyard. That small church grew into a rather large revival, which, according to Charisma magazine, "drew hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world."

Maybe.

I've saved the best for last: the revival created "controversy over unusual manifestations [of the Spirit?] such as barking and uncontrolled shaking."


Barking and uncontrolled shaking? Heh, heh! When that happens to our Golden Retriever, we take her to the vet, 'cause something is obviously wrong.

But then again, god is Dog spelled backward.


Woof!

God is the devil?

[Image from here]

This tidbit is from the pentecostal, fundy, right-wing Charisma magazine...

Seems an R. T. Kendall wrote a "daily devotional" in a book called All's Well That Ends Well. R. T. wanted to inform those silly enough to read his stuff that they need to understand "how the devil works."

Here's the important thing: The devil (Satan) is a creation of god and is doing god's work in the world. Yup! You must "Learn that every satanic attack is with God's permission and has a purpose."

But never fear, for God is stronger than Satan and while God may allow Satan to attack you, God will also be with you so you can stand up to Satan! Isn't that cool? What a cool God!


But wait, there's more! Maybe god isn't so cool! You have to be very, very careful, 'cause the devil is really sneaky and is an "accuser;" she'll make you feel stupid (for following Jesus), and she is a liar. And that's why you have to be so very, very careful 'cause the damn devil is going to "use a close relationship to get at you".

Psst! Maybe it's your brother, or sister, or boyfriend or girlfriend, or priest or pastor or teacher or god forbid, your spouse! Holy crap! "The devil will use that to discourage you. ... we must put our trust in Jesus Christ alone, because even the best of God's people, and sometimes those closest to us, will disappoint us sooner or later."


Well, this is simply too hard to take. God creates the devil and sets her loose on us poor unsuspecting souls. And if we go the devil's way, we'll spend eternity burning in the fires of hell. Now R. T. Kendall says that god will be there to help us fight the devil, but obviously that doesn't always work and because we're weak and fragile we're gonna trust those closest to us who will be used by the devil to do her work. Sounds like a no-win to me.

What a mess!

Who needs such a goofy god?


Or, perhaps R. T. Kendall doesn't have a freaking clue what he or she is talking about! You think?