March of the hypocrites

Christianity is a religion of tolerance and love. Ha, whatever, not in America. American Evangelicals are some of the most hate-filled creatures on the planet. Some of their "love":

If I was your creator and you mocked me in this manner I couldn't think of a hell hot enough for you.

And

I CANT FUCKING BELIEVE THAT ANYONE WOULD EVER BUY THIS LOAD OF HORSEHIT YOUR TRYING TO PASS OFF AS A RELIGION YOU GODDAMN FAGGOT - WHY DONT YOU LET JESUS INTO YOUR HEART YOU SON OF A WHORE

And the best one:

As a Christian, I follow Jesus for his teachings of love and tolerance; it is people like you who make me sick, I hope you die in a lake of fire and get your eyes pecked out by crows, so that you may go to hell and exist for eternity in a lake of fire getting your eyes pecked out by crows.

It's time to put a ban on homeschooling. These people are psychopaths. And check out their spelling and grammar, too.

From Fark.com

The Fire That Is Lebanon

I was too young to understand the chaos. CNN and cable media weren't ratings whores back then, and people still watched the evening news on network television. News was news, not what Paris Hilton ate for lunch.

I have faint recollections of images on television. I knew that the word "Lebanon" meant something bad. But I was the kid who looked at Russian script and thought it all was about nuclear bombs. (To this day I often refer to printed Russian as the "nuclear letters" just for fun.) Why did the Marines die? Why was the President on television so much? They never taught us these things in school. I didn't even know what the Middle East was, and no teacher ever attempted to explain that there was a war on. Why? Were they sheltering us? Were they trying to avoid having to explain why Lebanon was a mess, avoid talking about Israel or the Ottoman Empire or the Balfour Agreement? Or was it just too complicated for them to understand, let alone some eight year old kids trying to wrap their little minds around it?

I learned about the Lebanese civil war from Thomas Friedman. Don't groan - he wrote From Beirut to Jerusalem way before his ego inflated to the size of Beirut and Jerusalem put together, and it's quite a good book. Since then, I've been employed in the Mideast field and have come to learn much about what used to be an enigma to me. I've even learned the language. Sort of. Still, keeping track of the factions and the alliances over Lebanon's recent history is difficult to do. I wish those who say Americans don't care about Lebanon could understand why that just isn't true. Lebanon is a confusing place, and I don't think many Americans comprehend what is going on, especially in light of the fact that American media is a multibillion dollar industry. The Fourth Estate has burned to the ground. It's dead.

I've been reading as much as I can about the current situation. I don't want to have an uninformed opinion about it, although that's pretty much what all of the opinions are out there. I've read some real hate in the last few days - Arabs blaming Jews, Jews blaming Arabs, Arabs blaming Americans, Americans blaming Arabs, Americans blaming Jews, Jews blaming Americans, Arabs telling Americans to clean up the mess, Jews telling Americans to stay out of it...it's all so maddening! Get a grip people! I did discover a blog today with some sense (and a sense of humor.) Go to The Lebanese Bloggers for some rational insight into what's going on.

cross posted at In Search of Shamash

The internet is a series of tubes

Religious sense

One area that is becoming increasingly important to some Christians is the environment. An article in the Sunday Times of Britain says:

THE Bishop of London has declared it sinful for people to contribute to climate change by flying on holiday, driving a “gas-guzzling” car or failing to use energy-saving measures in the home...

What a refreshing change to see religious leaders taking moral responsibility about something important that affects us all rather than something trivial that doesn't affect them.

On history and the convenience of memory

Once in awhile you discover something about an old song that you never knew, something that inspires you to think about it a little more, or perhaps a lot more. I really like Dave Matthews' Some Devil album, but I don't listen to it all that often, as it can be rather depressing. Today, though, I got it out. As I put the CD into my computer, I noticed some jacket notes under the spot where the CD goes. One of the notes discusses the source of inspiration for the first track, Dodo:

Some years ago I was visiting a friend of mine on the coast of Maine. In his house, there was a collection of old National Geographic magazines, some as old as the nineteen-thirties. It was interesting to see how popular American culture viewed Adolf Hitler before the full fury of World War II. The view was quite favorable. It's strange how things change.

Germans have had to deal with the shame of Hitler's legacy for more than sixty years, while the rest of the world, partially thanks to the Hollywood obsession with the Nazis, equated Germany with the swastika, even as another brutal form of government oppressed many of the German people. However, like Dave says, we forget, either conveniently or shamefully, that Adolf Hitler was a popular person during his rise to power, not only in Germany, but across the world. He was especially favored by the global business community; indeed, his policies toward business were so favored by some businessmen that many continued to do business with German companies throughout the entire war, businessmen like Prescott Bush, Dubya's granddaddy, and Henry Ford. Now that's treason.

If you mention these truths to a certain type of American, they look at you in horror, like you support the Nazis yourself. Somehow in American popular culture, facts have become subjective, and the quest for knowledge has become something only "elitists" do. Our system of education has fallen into decay, our schools are crumbling, our playgrounds are war zones. University has become a place where you go to drink beer and get a job rather than an education, and if a fact contradicts your belief system, well then, that fact is simply wrong.

Dave sums it up well in Dodo:

Once upon a time
When the world was just a pancake
Fears would arise
That if you went too far you’d fall
But with the passage of time
It all became more of a ball.
We’re as sure of that
As we all once were when the world was flat

So I wonder this
As life billows smoke inside my head
This little game where nothing is sure, oh
Why would you play by the rules?
Who did, you did, you
Who did, you did, you

When was she killed
The very last dodo bird
And was she aware
She was the very last one

If all the things that you are saying love
Were true enough but still
What is all the worrying about
When you can work it out
When you can work it

Cross-posted at Rox Politix.

Bush's fantasy world

During a joint news conference Saturday in St. Petersburg, Bush said he raised concerns about democracy in Russia during a frank discussion with the Russian leader.

"I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world, like Iraq where there's a free press and free religion, and I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia would do the same," Bush said.

To that, Putin replied, "We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy that they have in Iraq, quite honestly."

Render unto Caesar...

A Pensacola evangelist who owns the defunct Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola was arrested Thursday on 58 federal charges, including failing to pay $473,818 in employee-related taxes and making threats against investigators...the judge took away his passport and guns Hovind claimed belonged to his church.

Why does a church need a gun?

See, I was right to call them evangelical crackheads!

Magic mushrooms can induce mystical effects, study finds

They say that there is no difference between drug-induced mystical experiences and the spontaneous religious ones that believers have reported for centuries.

Why do anti-immigrant people hate America?

Not enough workers to harvest Florida oranges

Lakeland, Florida (AP) — The Sunshine State has plenty of oranges on its trees. Trouble is there aren't enough people to pick them.

Florida citrus industry officials warn between three and six million boxes of oranges may not be harvested this year, as a result. If the worst case scenario proves true, it'll be the state's lowest orange production since 1992.

Officials blame talk of immigration crackdowns for their difficulty in finding Hispanic workers, who comprise much of Florida's farm work force. One grower says word spread through the Hispanic community that people had to return home if they wanted future jobs in the US.

All of the racism and hatred against immigrants is already starting to hurt our economy.

Reflections on Liberty

Happy 4th! Welcome to the soapbox!

I have an aversion to large crowds, with a few exceptions, like baseball games, where everyone has their own seat and their own space. Still, my aversion to crowds keeps me at home today instead of down on the Mall with the million other people who are melting in the 100 degree weather, a million people who are wearing red, white, and blue, waving little flags, and celebrating the gift of freedom.

Our country is unique in that it celebrates its Independence Day with picnics and friends and family rather than military parades and government-sanctioned gatherings. We get to watch baseball games (I thought of going to the Nats game, but it is roasting out) and root, root, root for the hometeam if we choose to do so. We can go swimming by clean(er) beaches and read whatever books we want, no matter how offensive to some people. We can take refuge from the heat inside our airconditioned dwellings and not think twice about the electricity going out. Nobody tells us what kind of clothing we can wear - shorts, tank tops, bikinis - those are all fine. We can criticize our government when it screws up. It is, after all, a government of, for, and by the people, not some uncontrollable entity about which we can do nothing. The only way government can control us is if we sit around and don't pay attention. (And tsk, tsk to those of you who don't.)

In the past few years, we've let some of those ideals slip. We've become complacent in giving away some of those freedoms on which this country was founded, all in the name of "security." As Benjamin Franklin, one of the great men who bestowed the gift of freedom upon us, once said, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary saftey deserve neither liberty not saftey." Today, I hope people will reflect upon the liberty they've been given. Vow never to let it slip away. That flag means everything, but you have to remember that flag isn't just about those who've died for it, it's for the men (and the women behind the men) who created the greatest document every written, the US Constitution (read it!) It's for those who worked to end slavery, who pushed for labor laws, who stood beside MLK to fight for civil rights so that none in America are treated as second class citizens. It's for the inventors, the scientists, the doctors, those who have propelled America to the top of innovation, technology, and progress. It's for the Irish who built America, the Italians, the Poles, the Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Ethiopians, Hispanics, the globe... It's for teachers, farmers, and yes, even baseball players, who provide us with entertainment, for in our prosperous society, we can afford to spend time and money on leisure.

The ideas that this country espouses - liberty, freedom from tyranny, equality of opportunity - these aren't solely American ideas. These are global ideas, human ideas, deserved by each and every person on this Earth who has the good fortune of taking a breath of precious air. These ideas are what made America the dream of so many who wanted to escape tyranny, poverty, who wanted a better life for themselves and their families. We can't forget that. We can't forget that nearly all of us came from somewhere else. We're the lucky ones, not the better ones. We've been blessed with the gift of life in a free and prosperous country, and none of us should ever take that for granted. Celebrate. Celebrate liberty. Celebrate life!

And with that being said, I must watch Germany crush Italy in the world's game. (Although those Italians are really nice to look at.)

[/soapbox]

UPDATE: Well, now there's no one left to root for but France. Germany, it was a heck of a ride.