Ted Koppel: Nine years after 9/11, let's stop fulfilling bin Laden's goals
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/09/AR2010090904735.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
From CNN today:
(CNN) -- This is no ordinary week. Take a look at the calendar.
If you follow developments in the arena of religion and public life, you have probably noticed.
Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the High Holy Days for Jews, falls this week, as does Eid Al-Fitr, the celebration of the breaking of the monthlong Ramadan fast for Muslims -- two special times of holiness for many Americans. Then, at week's end comes the ninth anniversary of 9/11, a day commemorated with sober religious and secular observance.
These important days have overlapped, coincidentally, during a time of heated religious controversy and discourse, and an upwelling of spiritual support, as well, centered largely around Islam.”
“In Washington on Tuesday, Rabbi David Saperstein of the Union for Reform Judaism declared that it is no longer an option to be silent about growing animosity toward Muslims in our society.”
http://us.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/09/10/borelli.holy.days.9-11/index.html?hpt=T2
The article documents an apparent realization by genuine religious leaders of organized and recognized religious groups. These leaders, by and large, are educated, holding degrees from accredited universities and serving populations that do not champion illiteracy and bigotry. Given the polarization of the times, this is a welcome occurrence. I doubt, however, that it will truly bring much of import to the nation.
The polarization is being driven by the religious fanatics who refuse to see that the 1st Amendment’s freedom to practice one’s religion does not provide them the right to prevent anyone else’s practice. Nor, do they realize that the same Amendment provides our citizens with the freedom to avoid being required to practice anyone else’s brand of religion.
The Christian fundamentalists and demagogues are demanding no mosques be constructed until Christian churches can be built in Saudi Arabia. In their ignorance, they fail to understand that such restrictions are made in some Moslem nations precisely because Islam has become the state religion. Yet our own Taliban are all too ready to create a theocracy with their particular brand of bigotry as the new state faith. They are ready to re-write our Constitution in order to force all US citizens to follow their own narrow-minded, practices that would be as restrictive and dangerous as anything ever demanded by the most reactionary Muslims.
Due to the nature of Islam and many nations without laws prohibiting state religions, their governments are dangerously intertwined with a single religion. Many Muslims, living in such nations, are unable to understand why our government does not stop the actions of a small town, small church, and hatemonger using false credentials to reach the illiterate. Likewise, many of our citizens are unable to understand the tenets of Islam and will never be able to do so. Our reactionaries are taught their faith by people like Terry Jones. They are told that Islam and the Quran are evil by a man who admits never having read the Quran. They are taught that education is not essential, that women should be subservient, that they have some mythically-given authority to convert the rest of the world to their faith whether it wishes to be converted or not.
The poor and illiterate in Afghanistan, in Yemen, and in other nations live lives not much different from those of peasants during the Dark Ages. They are proscribed any efforts to better their lives not justified by interpretation delivered by an Islamic authority, who, like Terry Jones, may never have read what he is proclaiming evil or good.
Sadly, we’ve created a populace of militant Christians who believe that they have a deity-given right to convert the world, to prevent the practice of any other religion, and to force their interpretation of their religion on all citizens of this nation. They have been told that this is a “Christian nation” by leaders who lack the intellectual capacity of desire to understand how rare and how important our 1st Amendment is. They reject science for mythology because they have be fed distorted information for decades by local and national religious leaders who’s incomes depend upon the contributions of their congregations. They are content to be led by those who milk them for income and feed them repetitive doses of intolerance, bigotry, and lies. They are taught to believe in witches, demons, devils, and other hold-overs from the days when there was no scientific explanation for any physical happening. They can’t correlate the mental illnesses that generate bizarre and dangerous behaviors and delusions with medical causes as they lack the intellect and education required to understand mental illness. They don’t trust doctors in many cases. They allow children to die of easily treated diseases while they pray for healing at the insistence of a holy demagogue or local preacher. During the last Presidential election it became known that Sarah Palin believes sufficiently in witch craft and curses to undergo an exorcism-like procedure. She also believes that angels and demons actually fight over her. That is about as Dark Ages as one can get. The thought of someone who believes she is chosen by a deity to rule a nation is frightening. I no more want her to have control of a nuclear arsenal than I do the Mullahs of Pakistan or Iran.
We cannot afford to have religious fanatics of any cult to begin wars that would reduce the current civilizations on this planet back to the Dark Ages. We know now that a Nuclear Winter is possible and that it would destroy civilization as it exists. We are not likely to remove nuclear weapons from the arsenals of those nations that have them now or those that are willing to risk war to gain them. The religious nuts who would use them are all too present and many have the funds to secure such warheads.
The religious leaders mentioned above who met and agreed to cooperate have taken only the easiest of steps to avoid a religion-caused return to the Dark Ages. They need to work collectively to deter the crazies in their ranks. As in previous reformations, such changes will have to come from internal sources. The men and women who sit in big offices and earn good salaries proclaiming their faiths to the educated must now talk to the mobs that disdain education. The breeding ground for desolation is ready. There is enough ignorance and bigotry to destroy nations if left unchecked to grow. Men and women like Terry Jones and fans need to be reined in by members of their own faith. Islam needs to be reformed by Muslims. No one should be sending missionaries to convert those of other faiths.
What is needed is for the silent moderates in all faiths to find their courage and drown out the shouts of the illiterate with calm recitations of reality and facts. There is no war on Christianity, no war on Islam. But there are lots of lunatics willing to start both wars if they can. They may be the closest thing to demons most of us will ever see.
Shabbat Shalom!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
9 September 2010 Can the Dark Ages return to the USA?
In the state of Florida a religious fanatic and his deluded followers are trying to bring about another Crusade. The leader, probably in need of medication, has found sufficient numbers of equally mentally deficient congregants to join his crusade of hatred, racism, and bigotry. They have a physical plant in the Gainesville area of Florida that serves as a base of operations for their sales operations. Since his congregants reportedly number 30-50, sales of hate and bigotry material must be lucrative. There are lots of people who can’t wait to jump onto the program of the latest and loudest demagogue. We all know how capable of belief some segments of our population are. I used to hear late night radio ads offering to sell me an autographed picture of Jesus for $5.00. Televangelists have become millionaires by taking dollars from older women who reportedly ate cat food in order to shave dollars from their food budget and then send them to the televangelists. I have no doubt as to the truth of these tales.
And in the grand tradition of preying on the prayerful, Terry Jones is willing to incite millions of Muslims to riot and to attack U.S. troops, diplomats, and even tourists in order to have his face and name made prominent by the broadcast media and to fatten his coffers by selling hatred to the already hateful, racism to racists, and ignorance to the ignorant.
Jones claims that the Quran “is from the Devil.” Note the upper case “D.” Jones, himself, probably believes far more in money than in faith. But his followers believe in demons, devils, succubae, incubi, and other incarnations of evil just as surely as did the peasants in the Dark Ages, fed a stream of magic and mysticism by the Holy Roman Church; and a steady stream of altered reality visions of Hell by their diet and their culture. Life in the Dark Ages was a long and all too true “bad trip.”
The peasants in Europe during the Dark Ages were constantly victims to famine, war, drought, and disease. Lacking any form of education they turned to the Church for knowledge and hope. The Church was quite content to keep knowledge from the masses. Someone who understands how disease can be transmitted by water, by fleas, or by other methods will be less likely to buy the story that Plague is caused by demons. They may still be willing, however, to demonize Jews as sources of infection. (Some sources of stupidity take longer than others to remove from the minds of people who should otherwise know better.)
There is a large segment of our population today that has no more concept of germ theory than did his Dark Ages counterpart. There is a segment that does not read and gets his worldview and all other beliefs from the current “holy” demagogue. The holy demagogue is willing to distort religious mythology to make the current peasants afraid of the dark, afraid of invisible demons, deities, and other unseen creatures that exist only in the minds of the illiterate and those afraid of intellect. The holy demagogues make lots of money selling ignorance. They make even more selling fear. Between the holy demagogues and unholy financiers, a class of people afraid of intellect, devoid of learning, believing in fairy stories of creationism, and willing to believe in invisible resorts in space matched by invisible torture chambers beneath the planet’s surface, has been created.
The Dark Ages were created by disease, by invasion, by economic collapse. Look around you. The unholy financiers and their servants in government have collapsed the economy, ruined the schools and destroyed intellectual achievements as goals and ambitions. They have removed access to health care, established walled castles for the ultra-wealthy, and are ready to ride out the diseases and social upheavals that are highly likely to follow.
Can the Dark Ages recur in the U.S.A? Count on it. The Tea Party mobs, the GOP, the theocrats on the far right, are all hoping for it. They’re praying for it.
Jones claims to have a doctorate. The title “doctor” seems to be a money raiser in the evangelical game. There are lots of websites advertising doctoral programs in religion from institutes and colleges that have never seen the near side
http://www.politicususa.com/en/sleazy-past-terry-jones
The article claims that Jones was convicted in Germany for falsely claiming a PhD he did not posses. He was ejected from the congregation he belonged to there as a result of financial irregularities.
Mr. Jones is quite willing to waste the lives of U.S. troops and other citizens so that he can peddle his brand of hatred to the unlearned. He will happily describe how a book he has never read is responsible for “Evil” in the world. He will, fail to explain how believers in his own particular brand of myths and lies has likewise brought about centuries of war, millions of deaths, and has done its best to keep the world from acquiring or sharing science, physics, and other forms of knowledge so that upper echelon priests can live in luxury from the earnings of the poor. Jones believes in demons and devils. I’d love to acquaint him with the incubus in the mirror.
I don’t believe in the Christian concept of “Hell.” But sometimes it would be good if it did exist. I’d be overjoyed to escort Mr. Jones and his church full of hate-mongering bigots, along with their friends at the Westboro Baptist Church, to the gates of Hell and push them inside.
Addendum: Jones has cancelled his book burning. He reportedly says that his decision is due to an agreement to relocate the 51 Park Cordoba House project. No confirmation for this has been provided and I don’t think that Imam Rauf would agree to such action to appease a hate-monger like Jones.
L Shanah Tovah!
And in the grand tradition of preying on the prayerful, Terry Jones is willing to incite millions of Muslims to riot and to attack U.S. troops, diplomats, and even tourists in order to have his face and name made prominent by the broadcast media and to fatten his coffers by selling hatred to the already hateful, racism to racists, and ignorance to the ignorant.
Jones claims that the Quran “is from the Devil.” Note the upper case “D.” Jones, himself, probably believes far more in money than in faith. But his followers believe in demons, devils, succubae, incubi, and other incarnations of evil just as surely as did the peasants in the Dark Ages, fed a stream of magic and mysticism by the Holy Roman Church; and a steady stream of altered reality visions of Hell by their diet and their culture. Life in the Dark Ages was a long and all too true “bad trip.”
The peasants in Europe during the Dark Ages were constantly victims to famine, war, drought, and disease. Lacking any form of education they turned to the Church for knowledge and hope. The Church was quite content to keep knowledge from the masses. Someone who understands how disease can be transmitted by water, by fleas, or by other methods will be less likely to buy the story that Plague is caused by demons. They may still be willing, however, to demonize Jews as sources of infection. (Some sources of stupidity take longer than others to remove from the minds of people who should otherwise know better.)
There is a large segment of our population today that has no more concept of germ theory than did his Dark Ages counterpart. There is a segment that does not read and gets his worldview and all other beliefs from the current “holy” demagogue. The holy demagogue is willing to distort religious mythology to make the current peasants afraid of the dark, afraid of invisible demons, deities, and other unseen creatures that exist only in the minds of the illiterate and those afraid of intellect. The holy demagogues make lots of money selling ignorance. They make even more selling fear. Between the holy demagogues and unholy financiers, a class of people afraid of intellect, devoid of learning, believing in fairy stories of creationism, and willing to believe in invisible resorts in space matched by invisible torture chambers beneath the planet’s surface, has been created.
The Dark Ages were created by disease, by invasion, by economic collapse. Look around you. The unholy financiers and their servants in government have collapsed the economy, ruined the schools and destroyed intellectual achievements as goals and ambitions. They have removed access to health care, established walled castles for the ultra-wealthy, and are ready to ride out the diseases and social upheavals that are highly likely to follow.
Can the Dark Ages recur in the U.S.A? Count on it. The Tea Party mobs, the GOP, the theocrats on the far right, are all hoping for it. They’re praying for it.
Jones claims to have a doctorate. The title “doctor” seems to be a money raiser in the evangelical game. There are lots of websites advertising doctoral programs in religion from institutes and colleges that have never seen the near side
http://www.politicususa.com/en/sleazy-past-terry-jones
The article claims that Jones was convicted in Germany for falsely claiming a PhD he did not posses. He was ejected from the congregation he belonged to there as a result of financial irregularities.
Mr. Jones is quite willing to waste the lives of U.S. troops and other citizens so that he can peddle his brand of hatred to the unlearned. He will happily describe how a book he has never read is responsible for “Evil” in the world. He will, fail to explain how believers in his own particular brand of myths and lies has likewise brought about centuries of war, millions of deaths, and has done its best to keep the world from acquiring or sharing science, physics, and other forms of knowledge so that upper echelon priests can live in luxury from the earnings of the poor. Jones believes in demons and devils. I’d love to acquaint him with the incubus in the mirror.
I don’t believe in the Christian concept of “Hell.” But sometimes it would be good if it did exist. I’d be overjoyed to escort Mr. Jones and his church full of hate-mongering bigots, along with their friends at the Westboro Baptist Church, to the gates of Hell and push them inside.
Addendum: Jones has cancelled his book burning. He reportedly says that his decision is due to an agreement to relocate the 51 Park Cordoba House project. No confirmation for this has been provided and I don’t think that Imam Rauf would agree to such action to appease a hate-monger like Jones.
L Shanah Tovah!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
8 September 2010 5770 becomes 5771 Olivia emerges
When the upper limb of the sun slips below the horizon the calendar year changes. We are entering the year 5771 on the Hebrew calendar. Today has been rainy, 0.33 inches of rainfall so far. Mystics and others might see this as a metaphoric washing away of the old year. There’s a line of rain that pretty much covers the eastern border of Tennessee. It’s been drifting our way all morning. The dog needs to go outside but I have no desire to stand around while she investigates all the smells released or amplified by the rain. I’m looking for a gap in the entrained storms.
Also arriving today, Olivia Frances Rutstein, daughter of Gloria’s nephew, David, and his wife, Daisy. After spending the night in labor, Daisy delivered Olivia about 1000. Welcome, Olivia! Long life and health to you!
The last of my texts for the semester arrived this morning. I’ve about 150 pages of reading to complete before tomorrow’s classes. Then, there are the two suggested texts for my history course. The brief history of European war has been easy reading, so far. I’m enjoying this book and like the manner in which warfare is tied to cultural and social matters.
The close approach of two near-earth asteroids should be noted today. Both will pass the earth inside the lunar orbit. That’s close, as these things go! If the calculations that predict the path of these NEA’s are off, we stand to wake up with a huge, new, smoking crater tomorrow.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/07/two-asteroids-to-pass-close-to-earth-on-wednesday/
“The objects will visible from Earth as tiny specks of light with the help of moderate-sized amateur telescopes, he said.
Near-Earth asteroid 2010 RX30, which is estimated to be 32 to 65 feet in size, will pass within 154,000 miles of Earth at 5:51 a.m. ET Wednesday. The second object, 2010 RF12, estimated to be 20 to 46 feet in size, will pass within 49,088 miles of Earth at 5:12 pm ET.
In case you were wondering, that means the two asteroids will pass within 0.6 and 0.2 lunar distances from the Earth, respectively. The first will be closest to Earth over the north Pacific, and the second, over Antarctica.”
The objects were just discovered Sunday morning by a. They were confirmed by the Catalina Sky Survey during a routine scan and confirmed by the Minor Planet Center. According to NASA’s Near Earth Program, which tracks potentially hazardous asteroids and comets within 28 million miles of Earth, there can be as many as 50 million near earth objects per day. NASA funding does not provide enough money and telescopes to adequately search and track all the regions of space that might provide longer-range warning of such asteroids and other potentially threatening objects.
The probability that earth will be struck by more rocks from space is 100%. The questions when, where, and how large are unanswered. The scope of possible damage ranges from pretty lights in the sky with no harm on the ground to planet shattering events that end humanity’s existence on this rock. There is next to nothing we can do to alter the course of any asteroid of significant size in order to prevent it striking earth.
I mentioned above that NASA lacks adequate funding to discover and track NEA’s. It also lacks funding to develop and maintain systems to target and redirect or destroy asteroids bound for impact on Earth. The choice to downgrade NASA’s funding has affected much more than just the man in space programs. Long range effects could literally limit the lifespan of the human race. Granted, that is an extreme statement that centers on the worst case scenario. But we frequently reach the best case scenario only by acting as if the worst case scenario is the only possible way to proceed.
This time it is only a two-rock fly-by. Humanity gets a pass and can continue in its efforts to bring about the worst case. Next week, who knows what will suddenly appear in our telescope arrays, discovered accidentally and luckily by volunteer amateurs because the various world governments won’t realize the necessity of joint effort and funding for the programs that will someday be necessary. A fire extinguisher is of no benefit until flames appear. An asteroid tracker/killer serves no purpose until the rock is inbound and too big to survive.
Shanah Tova! I hope 5770 was kind to you and that 5771 brings you an even better year.
Also arriving today, Olivia Frances Rutstein, daughter of Gloria’s nephew, David, and his wife, Daisy. After spending the night in labor, Daisy delivered Olivia about 1000. Welcome, Olivia! Long life and health to you!
The last of my texts for the semester arrived this morning. I’ve about 150 pages of reading to complete before tomorrow’s classes. Then, there are the two suggested texts for my history course. The brief history of European war has been easy reading, so far. I’m enjoying this book and like the manner in which warfare is tied to cultural and social matters.
The close approach of two near-earth asteroids should be noted today. Both will pass the earth inside the lunar orbit. That’s close, as these things go! If the calculations that predict the path of these NEA’s are off, we stand to wake up with a huge, new, smoking crater tomorrow.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/07/two-asteroids-to-pass-close-to-earth-on-wednesday/
“The objects will visible from Earth as tiny specks of light with the help of moderate-sized amateur telescopes, he said.
Near-Earth asteroid 2010 RX30, which is estimated to be 32 to 65 feet in size, will pass within 154,000 miles of Earth at 5:51 a.m. ET Wednesday. The second object, 2010 RF12, estimated to be 20 to 46 feet in size, will pass within 49,088 miles of Earth at 5:12 pm ET.
In case you were wondering, that means the two asteroids will pass within 0.6 and 0.2 lunar distances from the Earth, respectively. The first will be closest to Earth over the north Pacific, and the second, over Antarctica.”
The objects were just discovered Sunday morning by a. They were confirmed by the Catalina Sky Survey during a routine scan and confirmed by the Minor Planet Center. According to NASA’s Near Earth Program, which tracks potentially hazardous asteroids and comets within 28 million miles of Earth, there can be as many as 50 million near earth objects per day. NASA funding does not provide enough money and telescopes to adequately search and track all the regions of space that might provide longer-range warning of such asteroids and other potentially threatening objects.
The probability that earth will be struck by more rocks from space is 100%. The questions when, where, and how large are unanswered. The scope of possible damage ranges from pretty lights in the sky with no harm on the ground to planet shattering events that end humanity’s existence on this rock. There is next to nothing we can do to alter the course of any asteroid of significant size in order to prevent it striking earth.
I mentioned above that NASA lacks adequate funding to discover and track NEA’s. It also lacks funding to develop and maintain systems to target and redirect or destroy asteroids bound for impact on Earth. The choice to downgrade NASA’s funding has affected much more than just the man in space programs. Long range effects could literally limit the lifespan of the human race. Granted, that is an extreme statement that centers on the worst case scenario. But we frequently reach the best case scenario only by acting as if the worst case scenario is the only possible way to proceed.
This time it is only a two-rock fly-by. Humanity gets a pass and can continue in its efforts to bring about the worst case. Next week, who knows what will suddenly appear in our telescope arrays, discovered accidentally and luckily by volunteer amateurs because the various world governments won’t realize the necessity of joint effort and funding for the programs that will someday be necessary. A fire extinguisher is of no benefit until flames appear. An asteroid tracker/killer serves no purpose until the rock is inbound and too big to survive.
Shanah Tova! I hope 5770 was kind to you and that 5771 brings you an even better year.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
7 September 2010 put this in your book and burn it.
It’s about 89°F at 1335. I’m sitting at a picnic table between the military science building and the fine arts studios on ETSU campus. The air is humid and promises to become more so. But there’s an occasional breeze that comes and goes, bringing with it construction noises, distant traffic noises, conversations, and bluegrass banjo. The ambient light conditions suck as far as using my notebook computer at this table. I’ve cranked up the screen brightness and tried to block some of the light with my backpack.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/09/07/florida.quran.burning/index.html?hpt=T1#fbid=b8gYeUmLqoK&wom=false
Pastor weighing plans to burn Qurans amid U.S. warnings
By the CNN Wire Staff
September 7, 2010 -- Updated 1415 GMT (2215 HKT
In Gainesville Florida a church, led by a fundamentalist Christian preacher is about to commit mass idiocy. They plan to burn an unknown number of copies of the Quran on 11 September. They also, I have read in multiple sources, are going to burn at least one copy of the Talmud. They are doing this to convince some of the 1+ billion Muslims who populate the world that the Quran is an evil item, a tool of the devil. The morning news on CNN broadcast a segment of a live interview with the leader of this group of hate mongers. Watching him answer the interviewer’s questions was highly suggestive of what a similar interview with bin Laden would be like. He simply refused to hear any indication or suggestion that his planned course of action might be wrong in any manner. It was horribly frustrating for the interviewer, who was trying to provide him a platform to address the complaints and concerns being voiced by rational Americans and by Muslims in other parts of the world. Instead of offering intelligent discussion, he threw up a constant line of boiler plate evangelism, fundamentalist Christianity,
And dark ages stupidity.
Excerpted from CNN this morning:
"The burning is not only an insult to the holy Quran, but an insult to Islam and Muslims around the world," said Muhammad Ismail, a spokesman for the hard-line Indonesian Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir.”
Jones said his congregation is well-aware that the action is offensive. "We realize that this action would indeed offend people, offend the Muslims. I am offended when they burn the flag. I am offended when they burn the Bible. But we feel that the message that we are trying to send is much more important than people being offended."
Jones said Muslims are welcomed in the United States, if they observe the Constitution and don't try to impose Sharia law, or Muslim law. The message, he said, is directed toward the "radical element of Islam."
"Our message is very clear," he said. "It is not to the moderate Muslim. Our message is not a message of hate. Our message is a message of warning to the radical element of Islam, and I think what we see right now around the globe provides exactly what we're talking about," he said.
Watching this segment was painful. The hatred for Islam is unmerited. A church population is being led to commit an act that should be hateful to all American citizens by a leader who is seemingly proud of his own ignorance about the Quran and the religion it belongs to. While I have concerns about how Muslims meld their religion with societies and cultures that are not predominantly Muslim, I have read the book and recognize that it has some beauty in its language. I don’t believe the book itself to be evil, harmful, or in any way demonic in origin. But then, unlike these 50 or so people in Florida and their long distance supporters, I’m not living in the 21st century with my brain stuck in the Dark Ages. I’m not waiting for the “rapture’ even though I could use some new cassette decks and a good equalizer. I figure if the “rapture” does happen, there will be some leftover hardware for the asking. Come to think of it, “post-rapture shopping should be really good. All the born again, supposedly born-again, and other forgiven won’t be there to stand in the express lanes with 13 items.
Back to Florida- I don’t understand how anyone can expect burning the holy books of another’s faith is going to cause them to line up to join yours. The Inquisition didn’t achieve any real success, nor did the Nazis. Both of those hateful and hate-filled groups burned a lot of books. Lots of illiterate protestant preachers burned a lot of 45 RPM records but rock-and – roll is still around today. There’s even a hall of fame. The only museum for book burners is at that “museum” in Kentucky that depicts the co-existence of humans and dinosaurs. Perhaps they’ll put a wax stature of Terry Jones there next to the photo of Sarah Palin riding her dinosaur.
The commanding general for the theater has asked the idiots not to burn any books. They’re “praying about it.” I think an appropriate action would be to publish their church’s address and that of their idiot-leader. He claims Islam is barbaric. He claims Islam is violent in nature. Perhaps he needs a closer acquaintance with the book of Islam and perhaps with a few Moslems. I wonder how he’d enjoy being read to, from the Quran, no-stop, for several days, using a loud-hailer. I’m sure he would support using that means of “education” to convert Muslims. I’m willing to read for an hour.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/09/07/florida.quran.burning/index.html?hpt=T1#fbid=b8gYeUmLqoK&wom=false
Pastor weighing plans to burn Qurans amid U.S. warnings
By the CNN Wire Staff
September 7, 2010 -- Updated 1415 GMT (2215 HKT
In Gainesville Florida a church, led by a fundamentalist Christian preacher is about to commit mass idiocy. They plan to burn an unknown number of copies of the Quran on 11 September. They also, I have read in multiple sources, are going to burn at least one copy of the Talmud. They are doing this to convince some of the 1+ billion Muslims who populate the world that the Quran is an evil item, a tool of the devil. The morning news on CNN broadcast a segment of a live interview with the leader of this group of hate mongers. Watching him answer the interviewer’s questions was highly suggestive of what a similar interview with bin Laden would be like. He simply refused to hear any indication or suggestion that his planned course of action might be wrong in any manner. It was horribly frustrating for the interviewer, who was trying to provide him a platform to address the complaints and concerns being voiced by rational Americans and by Muslims in other parts of the world. Instead of offering intelligent discussion, he threw up a constant line of boiler plate evangelism, fundamentalist Christianity,
And dark ages stupidity.
Excerpted from CNN this morning:
"The burning is not only an insult to the holy Quran, but an insult to Islam and Muslims around the world," said Muhammad Ismail, a spokesman for the hard-line Indonesian Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir.”
Jones said his congregation is well-aware that the action is offensive. "We realize that this action would indeed offend people, offend the Muslims. I am offended when they burn the flag. I am offended when they burn the Bible. But we feel that the message that we are trying to send is much more important than people being offended."
Jones said Muslims are welcomed in the United States, if they observe the Constitution and don't try to impose Sharia law, or Muslim law. The message, he said, is directed toward the "radical element of Islam."
"Our message is very clear," he said. "It is not to the moderate Muslim. Our message is not a message of hate. Our message is a message of warning to the radical element of Islam, and I think what we see right now around the globe provides exactly what we're talking about," he said.
Watching this segment was painful. The hatred for Islam is unmerited. A church population is being led to commit an act that should be hateful to all American citizens by a leader who is seemingly proud of his own ignorance about the Quran and the religion it belongs to. While I have concerns about how Muslims meld their religion with societies and cultures that are not predominantly Muslim, I have read the book and recognize that it has some beauty in its language. I don’t believe the book itself to be evil, harmful, or in any way demonic in origin. But then, unlike these 50 or so people in Florida and their long distance supporters, I’m not living in the 21st century with my brain stuck in the Dark Ages. I’m not waiting for the “rapture’ even though I could use some new cassette decks and a good equalizer. I figure if the “rapture” does happen, there will be some leftover hardware for the asking. Come to think of it, “post-rapture shopping should be really good. All the born again, supposedly born-again, and other forgiven won’t be there to stand in the express lanes with 13 items.
Back to Florida- I don’t understand how anyone can expect burning the holy books of another’s faith is going to cause them to line up to join yours. The Inquisition didn’t achieve any real success, nor did the Nazis. Both of those hateful and hate-filled groups burned a lot of books. Lots of illiterate protestant preachers burned a lot of 45 RPM records but rock-and – roll is still around today. There’s even a hall of fame. The only museum for book burners is at that “museum” in Kentucky that depicts the co-existence of humans and dinosaurs. Perhaps they’ll put a wax stature of Terry Jones there next to the photo of Sarah Palin riding her dinosaur.
The commanding general for the theater has asked the idiots not to burn any books. They’re “praying about it.” I think an appropriate action would be to publish their church’s address and that of their idiot-leader. He claims Islam is barbaric. He claims Islam is violent in nature. Perhaps he needs a closer acquaintance with the book of Islam and perhaps with a few Moslems. I wonder how he’d enjoy being read to, from the Quran, no-stop, for several days, using a loud-hailer. I’m sure he would support using that means of “education” to convert Muslims. I’m willing to read for an hour.
Monday, September 6, 2010
6 September 2010 Atheists’ hymn at Merle Fest has wide reach?
6 September 2010 Atheists’ hymn at Merle Fest has wide reach?
As introduced by Steve Martin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFWA1A9XFi8
This celebrates the lack of sacred atheist music. It is well worth the time required to listen and smile. Keyboard lockups have re-appeared beneath my fingertips. I seriously doubt the interconnection of listening to this song twice and a hardware malfunction that I thought I had resolved.
Top 10 reasons why wars last too long
Posted By Stephen M. Walt Wednesday, September 1, 2010
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/09/01/top_ten_reasons_why_wars_last_too_long
I’m going to jump right to the 10th item on this list, nationalism and its current common perversions Walt does a decent job with this:
“10. National pride. Nationalism is a very powerful force, and great powers usually have lots of reasons to be impressed by their own accomplishments. When you're very wealthy and very powerful, and when your national history is mostly one of great good fortune (e.g., like the United States), it is hard to believe that there are some military tasks that you may not be able to accomplish at an acceptable price tag. Lyndon Johnson just couldn't quite believe that "Asians in black pajamas" could defeat the mighty United States, and it must be hard for many Americans to figure out why we can't sort things out in Afghanistan, defeat the Taliban once and for all, and round up bin Laden while we are at it. On any list of the reasons why wars last too long, hubris deserves a prominent place.”
We’ve seen nationalism twisted into a very ugly creature in this nation. Pride in one’s nation of birth has been twisted into a false patriotism that uses national symbols to justify the worst of human behaviors. Currently this is readily apparent in the Tea Party mobs’ dislike of education and educated citizens. Interest in obtaining an education, in acquiring knowledge, becomes “elitism.” “Elitism” is then depicted as “un-American.” Those with education beyond high school are said to be talking down to the “real Americans.” Yet, looking back only a few generations, the chance to send children to free public schools and to acquire advanced education was a driving factor in the decision of many families to immigrate to the new world.
We also see religion tied into this false patriotism. The religious right and the GOP are constantly trying to link the founding of this nation with their particular brand of protestant Christianity. They insist that the U.S. was founded as a “Christian” nation and acknowledge the 1st Amendment only when it seems to protect their desire to force fundamentalist Christianity into every aspect of public and private life. We’ve seen this theocratic control of other nations. It is nothing to be proud of and nothing to desire. We, as a nation, have no right to force any religion upon any other nation or people. The current plight of much of Latin America is due to the Spanish alliance with the Catholic Church. Allowing fundamentalist Christians to control other nations, or this nation, would result in the basic destruction of what this nation promised to be at inception.
I’ve heard far too many people refer to Iraqis and Afghanis by racist labels. I know all too well that it makes it easier for soldiers to attempt to kill their opponents if they are somehow de-humanized. Labeling them is a primary means of such practice. “Charlie” was the least derogatory label we used when describing North Vietnamese troops. The more common appellations could earn one disciplinary action if spoken over the operational radio networks. I’ve no doubt that the same situation exists among our troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Our civilian populace has no reason to use such dehumanizing terms or similar language. The large part of our populace has never been in the armed forces in combat. The adaptation of such language by civilians is evidence of racism, of religious bigotry directed by Christians against Moslems, and of propaganda campaigns paid for by the GOP and religious right to gain favor for pseudo-patriotic behavior by political candidates and parties. Just as LBJ was handed a rude awakening about the capabilities of “pajama-clad Vietnamese,” so was Bush II and his corps of theocrat and theocons advisors and backers about the capabilities of Moslem fundamentalists to organize and carry out irregular warfare against a heavily industrialized nation. Due to our leaders’ hubris and the willingness of our populace to accept a trumped up pseudo-patriotic bag of lies and half-truths that satisfied the desire to believe than dark-skinned Moslems could not defeat us in battle; we allowed our nation’s leaders to waste lives and limbs pursuing their own beliefs while the cost was paid by people who had no reason to be in the war beyond need of a job in a time of growing unemployment and economic downturn.
I watch television news and see people at Tea Party mob rallys waving a Gadsden flag as if they truly understood the need for national solidarity that it symbolizes. Instead of that unity, the people waving it and other symbols of our Revolution are actually calling for a division among our citizens. They’d be all too eager to see another Civil War played out over their concept of “state’s rights,” all too eager to see this nation destroyed by theocrats. Heinlein wrote about uneducated religious fundamentalists taking over the government. His scenarios keep resonating in my mind as I watch the false patriotism and poorly directed nationalism of today played and replayed by poorly educated religious fanatics like Sarah Palin, and those willing to cohabit with them.
What ever the realities are, this nation needs to be joining Steve Martin in singing the Atheist’s hymn and leaving other to play and pray as they will. My keyboard problems are miniscule to the problems we would all face if the theocrats and fundamentalist of any faith get their dirty little censors’ hands into the control panels of the internet.
Julius, thanks for the steer!
As introduced by Steve Martin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFWA1A9XFi8
This celebrates the lack of sacred atheist music. It is well worth the time required to listen and smile. Keyboard lockups have re-appeared beneath my fingertips. I seriously doubt the interconnection of listening to this song twice and a hardware malfunction that I thought I had resolved.
Top 10 reasons why wars last too long
Posted By Stephen M. Walt Wednesday, September 1, 2010
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/09/01/top_ten_reasons_why_wars_last_too_long
I’m going to jump right to the 10th item on this list, nationalism and its current common perversions Walt does a decent job with this:
“10. National pride. Nationalism is a very powerful force, and great powers usually have lots of reasons to be impressed by their own accomplishments. When you're very wealthy and very powerful, and when your national history is mostly one of great good fortune (e.g., like the United States), it is hard to believe that there are some military tasks that you may not be able to accomplish at an acceptable price tag. Lyndon Johnson just couldn't quite believe that "Asians in black pajamas" could defeat the mighty United States, and it must be hard for many Americans to figure out why we can't sort things out in Afghanistan, defeat the Taliban once and for all, and round up bin Laden while we are at it. On any list of the reasons why wars last too long, hubris deserves a prominent place.”
We’ve seen nationalism twisted into a very ugly creature in this nation. Pride in one’s nation of birth has been twisted into a false patriotism that uses national symbols to justify the worst of human behaviors. Currently this is readily apparent in the Tea Party mobs’ dislike of education and educated citizens. Interest in obtaining an education, in acquiring knowledge, becomes “elitism.” “Elitism” is then depicted as “un-American.” Those with education beyond high school are said to be talking down to the “real Americans.” Yet, looking back only a few generations, the chance to send children to free public schools and to acquire advanced education was a driving factor in the decision of many families to immigrate to the new world.
We also see religion tied into this false patriotism. The religious right and the GOP are constantly trying to link the founding of this nation with their particular brand of protestant Christianity. They insist that the U.S. was founded as a “Christian” nation and acknowledge the 1st Amendment only when it seems to protect their desire to force fundamentalist Christianity into every aspect of public and private life. We’ve seen this theocratic control of other nations. It is nothing to be proud of and nothing to desire. We, as a nation, have no right to force any religion upon any other nation or people. The current plight of much of Latin America is due to the Spanish alliance with the Catholic Church. Allowing fundamentalist Christians to control other nations, or this nation, would result in the basic destruction of what this nation promised to be at inception.
I’ve heard far too many people refer to Iraqis and Afghanis by racist labels. I know all too well that it makes it easier for soldiers to attempt to kill their opponents if they are somehow de-humanized. Labeling them is a primary means of such practice. “Charlie” was the least derogatory label we used when describing North Vietnamese troops. The more common appellations could earn one disciplinary action if spoken over the operational radio networks. I’ve no doubt that the same situation exists among our troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Our civilian populace has no reason to use such dehumanizing terms or similar language. The large part of our populace has never been in the armed forces in combat. The adaptation of such language by civilians is evidence of racism, of religious bigotry directed by Christians against Moslems, and of propaganda campaigns paid for by the GOP and religious right to gain favor for pseudo-patriotic behavior by political candidates and parties. Just as LBJ was handed a rude awakening about the capabilities of “pajama-clad Vietnamese,” so was Bush II and his corps of theocrat and theocons advisors and backers about the capabilities of Moslem fundamentalists to organize and carry out irregular warfare against a heavily industrialized nation. Due to our leaders’ hubris and the willingness of our populace to accept a trumped up pseudo-patriotic bag of lies and half-truths that satisfied the desire to believe than dark-skinned Moslems could not defeat us in battle; we allowed our nation’s leaders to waste lives and limbs pursuing their own beliefs while the cost was paid by people who had no reason to be in the war beyond need of a job in a time of growing unemployment and economic downturn.
I watch television news and see people at Tea Party mob rallys waving a Gadsden flag as if they truly understood the need for national solidarity that it symbolizes. Instead of that unity, the people waving it and other symbols of our Revolution are actually calling for a division among our citizens. They’d be all too eager to see another Civil War played out over their concept of “state’s rights,” all too eager to see this nation destroyed by theocrats. Heinlein wrote about uneducated religious fundamentalists taking over the government. His scenarios keep resonating in my mind as I watch the false patriotism and poorly directed nationalism of today played and replayed by poorly educated religious fanatics like Sarah Palin, and those willing to cohabit with them.
What ever the realities are, this nation needs to be joining Steve Martin in singing the Atheist’s hymn and leaving other to play and pray as they will. My keyboard problems are miniscule to the problems we would all face if the theocrats and fundamentalist of any faith get their dirty little censors’ hands into the control panels of the internet.
Julius, thanks for the steer!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
5 September 2010 Feels a bit like autumn
I enjoyed the luxury of sleeping until almost 0800. Then the need for meds was stronger than the capability for sleep. We didn’t get in until after 2300 last night. So by the time we turned off the last light it was closer to 0200 than I hoped it would be.
The temperature reached 50°F this morning before warming up to 81°F. A nice promise of fall in the air last night. Time to add insulation to the filter housing.
Other maintenance chores today included adding water to the pool, removing a lot of leaves and beetles from the pool, adding 40 pounds of salt to the well filters.
Gloria has set up several large pieces of turkey in the slow cooker. She browned them along with onions and garlic, seasoned them, and left them to braise in white wine. She’s done this several times before with excellent results. The house has smelled good all afternoon.
Mike loaned us a copy of Avatar and we’ve been watching it this afternoon. I keep finding bits and pieces of other science fiction tales and book series in the script. I’m rather glad that we didn’t shell out the dollars to see this in a theater. The plot just isn’t worth it. Still, for a holiday weekend, it’s something we haven’t seen and the price is excellent.
I’ve put a dry rub on a rack of ribs to get them ready to smoke tomorrow. I wound up buying briquettes this time instead of lump charcoal. The remaining lump charcoal I have is either pebble-sized pieces or big hunks of branches. We’ll use hickory to do the ribs rather than mesquite.
The temperature reached 50°F this morning before warming up to 81°F. A nice promise of fall in the air last night. Time to add insulation to the filter housing.
Other maintenance chores today included adding water to the pool, removing a lot of leaves and beetles from the pool, adding 40 pounds of salt to the well filters.
Gloria has set up several large pieces of turkey in the slow cooker. She browned them along with onions and garlic, seasoned them, and left them to braise in white wine. She’s done this several times before with excellent results. The house has smelled good all afternoon.
Mike loaned us a copy of Avatar and we’ve been watching it this afternoon. I keep finding bits and pieces of other science fiction tales and book series in the script. I’m rather glad that we didn’t shell out the dollars to see this in a theater. The plot just isn’t worth it. Still, for a holiday weekend, it’s something we haven’t seen and the price is excellent.
I’ve put a dry rub on a rack of ribs to get them ready to smoke tomorrow. I wound up buying briquettes this time instead of lump charcoal. The remaining lump charcoal I have is either pebble-sized pieces or big hunks of branches. We’ll use hickory to do the ribs rather than mesquite.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
4 September 2010 Ignore the press and ignore the truth
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer flounders at start and end of debate
UPDATE 9/3/10: Jan Brewer says she won't be participating in any more debates. The Arizona Daily Star reports:
Incumbent Republican Jan Brewer said Thursday she has no intention of participating in any more events with Democrat Terry Goddard. She said the only reason she debated him on Wednesday is she had to to qualify for more than $1.7 million in public funds for her campaign.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/09/jan-brewer-flounders-at-start.html
Capehart writes in the Washington Post:
Palin is a true star. But she is a raw talent who refuses to do the necessary hard work that would catapult her to heights unknown. She also seems content being a latter-day mean girl who attacks President Obama, Democrats and other opponents with sarcasm, snark and smirks. Michael Joseph Gross writes in Vanity Fair about how the half-term governor has become increasingly isolated as her prominence has risen in “Sarah Palin: the sound and the fury.” There’s some good dish in it that ranges from the petty to the serious. None of it will stop her ascent. What will is Palin’s consistent low-standing with the public.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/09/sarah_palin_is_everywhere_--_a.html
Ruth Marcus adds:
“As in Palin's comments to Sean Hannity about the Vanity Fair piece: "Those who are impotent and limp and gutless and they go on their anonymous -- sources that are anonymous -- and impotent, limp and gutless reporters take anonymous sources and cite them as being factual references."
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/09/_i_resisted_really_i.html
There is an emerging strategy among tea party mob candidates and GOP right wing extremists to ignore the press and broadcast media. They have discovered that they can reach their core supporters by means of talk radio, Fox News, and social networking sites such as Face book and Twitter. Why bother with the press/broadcast media and their demands for accuracy, truth, and sources? After all, they expect to be able to ask questions that right wingers would rather not answer, that point out holes in the party platforms, that, if answered truthfully, might cost a candidate or incumbent votes, funding, or legal difficulties. They also keep asking questions that, if answered truthfully, can point out the glaring lack of qualifications for some candidates.
Palin found out that her followers had no desire to watch the real media question her. The loyal core is all too willing to forgive her lack of preparation, lack of qualifications, lack of ability, and unwillingness to even bother trying to acquire knowledge &/or ethics she does not possess. Her true believers are willing to listen to her lie on Fox News. They are willing to accept ghost-written face book posts and tweets as comparable to position papers, platforms, and policies that qualified candidates take the time to compile and publish, then defend. Palinistas see no reason that their clique leader should have to prove anything she says to be true. Nor do they require her to defend her positions (or those ghost-written for her.)
Now the practice is spreading to other candidates fielded by the tea party mobs and GOP. The senatorial candidate from Utah running against Reid actually wants to press to publish her press releases without commentary – free and unquestioned advertising. Fox News is already doing this for its preferred candidates. That is yet another reason they are not a valid source of news. Now the governor of Arizona has declared that she will no longer behave as a real candidate but follow the Palin school of “lie about whatever you can and never answer questions.”
I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I have ever read anything from Vanity Fair. I followed the link from Marcus’s article. It is a hit article, no way around that. But if 10 percent of the allegations in the article are true, they are sufficiently damning to convince anyone not in thrall to the religious right and the rest of the right wing extremists that she is absolutely and permanently unfit for any office, at any speed, at any time.
The various polls indicate that sufficient numbers of Americans find her unqualified for office that she will not be electable. I hope that is correct. She would bring about a disaster greater than the combination of Nixon, Reagan, and Bush II before she grew bored or lost interest due to the demands of the job. But assuming she won’t be electable, the question remains, “How much damage can she cause without being elected?”
UPDATE 9/3/10: Jan Brewer says she won't be participating in any more debates. The Arizona Daily Star reports:
Incumbent Republican Jan Brewer said Thursday she has no intention of participating in any more events with Democrat Terry Goddard. She said the only reason she debated him on Wednesday is she had to to qualify for more than $1.7 million in public funds for her campaign.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/09/jan-brewer-flounders-at-start.html
Capehart writes in the Washington Post:
Palin is a true star. But she is a raw talent who refuses to do the necessary hard work that would catapult her to heights unknown. She also seems content being a latter-day mean girl who attacks President Obama, Democrats and other opponents with sarcasm, snark and smirks. Michael Joseph Gross writes in Vanity Fair about how the half-term governor has become increasingly isolated as her prominence has risen in “Sarah Palin: the sound and the fury.” There’s some good dish in it that ranges from the petty to the serious. None of it will stop her ascent. What will is Palin’s consistent low-standing with the public.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/09/sarah_palin_is_everywhere_--_a.html
Ruth Marcus adds:
“As in Palin's comments to Sean Hannity about the Vanity Fair piece: "Those who are impotent and limp and gutless and they go on their anonymous -- sources that are anonymous -- and impotent, limp and gutless reporters take anonymous sources and cite them as being factual references."
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/09/_i_resisted_really_i.html
There is an emerging strategy among tea party mob candidates and GOP right wing extremists to ignore the press and broadcast media. They have discovered that they can reach their core supporters by means of talk radio, Fox News, and social networking sites such as Face book and Twitter. Why bother with the press/broadcast media and their demands for accuracy, truth, and sources? After all, they expect to be able to ask questions that right wingers would rather not answer, that point out holes in the party platforms, that, if answered truthfully, might cost a candidate or incumbent votes, funding, or legal difficulties. They also keep asking questions that, if answered truthfully, can point out the glaring lack of qualifications for some candidates.
Palin found out that her followers had no desire to watch the real media question her. The loyal core is all too willing to forgive her lack of preparation, lack of qualifications, lack of ability, and unwillingness to even bother trying to acquire knowledge &/or ethics she does not possess. Her true believers are willing to listen to her lie on Fox News. They are willing to accept ghost-written face book posts and tweets as comparable to position papers, platforms, and policies that qualified candidates take the time to compile and publish, then defend. Palinistas see no reason that their clique leader should have to prove anything she says to be true. Nor do they require her to defend her positions (or those ghost-written for her.)
Now the practice is spreading to other candidates fielded by the tea party mobs and GOP. The senatorial candidate from Utah running against Reid actually wants to press to publish her press releases without commentary – free and unquestioned advertising. Fox News is already doing this for its preferred candidates. That is yet another reason they are not a valid source of news. Now the governor of Arizona has declared that she will no longer behave as a real candidate but follow the Palin school of “lie about whatever you can and never answer questions.”
I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I have ever read anything from Vanity Fair. I followed the link from Marcus’s article. It is a hit article, no way around that. But if 10 percent of the allegations in the article are true, they are sufficiently damning to convince anyone not in thrall to the religious right and the rest of the right wing extremists that she is absolutely and permanently unfit for any office, at any speed, at any time.
The various polls indicate that sufficient numbers of Americans find her unqualified for office that she will not be electable. I hope that is correct. She would bring about a disaster greater than the combination of Nixon, Reagan, and Bush II before she grew bored or lost interest due to the demands of the job. But assuming she won’t be electable, the question remains, “How much damage can she cause without being elected?”
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