Haha I sympathize with this meme. But it applies to the colonized as well as the colonizers. I do tend to fault impoverished people for shackling themselves to church dogma. Religion rationalizes and preserves inequity. Of course this ignores that African American congregations are community centers above everything else. To cast off religion would deprive believers of their whole social fabric. But isn’t that like arguing that slave plantations were more than places of involuntary employment? Obviously tobacco and cotton plantations were the centers of slave communities. To end slavery threatened a slave’s source of everything: sustenance, shelter, family and community. Small wonder most slaves resisted those agitating for abolition. Slave rebellions were always betrayed by fearful slaves. No churches advocated for abolition. Even the civil rights movement a century later, was resisted by African American churches, except for a tiny few associated with MLK. Everyone today pretends to have marched with MLK, even as they admonish their followers to stay in their pews! Ferguson ignited the Black Lives Matter movement despite local preachers incessantly calling for the protests to cease.
Tag: Religion
In God We Trust by Eduardo Galeano
Presidents of the United States tend to speak in God's name, although none of them has let on if He communicates by letter, fax, telephone or telepathy. With or without His approval, in 2006 God was proclaimed chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. That said, the All Powerful, who is even on the dollar bill, was a shining absence at the time of independence. The constitution did not mention Him. At the Constitutional Convention, when a prayer was suggested, Alexander Hamilton responded: "We don't need foreign aid." On his deathbed, George Washington wanted no prayers or priest or anything. Benjamin Franklin said divine revelation was nothing but poppycock. "My mind is my own church," affirmed Thomas Paine, and President John Adams believed that "this world would be the best of all worlds, if there were no religion in it." According to Thomas Jefferson, Catholic priests and Protestant ministers were "soothsayers and necromancers" who divided humanity, making "one half fools and the other half hypocrites." -Eduardo Galeano (1940-2015) RIP
Viewed from Interstate 70, Kansas is the selfie of American Idiocracy
TOPEKA, KANSAS- Who's not in Kansas anymore? Anyone with a lick of sense. I crossed the state recently to find the western half riddled with fracked well heads, billboards condemning abortion, tollbooths on the interstate, police cruisers extorting drivers, and privatized postal services! I told the tollbooth attendant I didn't think much of Kansas, I meant its dumbfuck Kansans.
The racist religion of the IDF soldiers
Copycatting the racist Christian soldiers of Nazi Germany in the past and the Far Right Christians in the US military of the present, the so-called Israeli Defense Forces sing and dance religious songs as they murder others of another race and culture. From the Israeli press comes this scene of Jewish racism and religious hatred in action... Video: Soldiers Keep Up the Spirit, Sing: We Rely on God
Jefferson, Diderot: Liberty is refreshed by the blood of tyrants, kings, priests
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." The disembowelment which prefaces Diderot's notorious admonition seems to escape modern spiritualists who presume to advise revolutionaries. Do they think mankind has transcended rationalism? We haven't even overcome feudalism.
God fails Tim Tebow
Today’s Tom Sawyer
It's 4am here and this occurred to me strongly enough just now to have me say it just now. For Vic, Ken and the rest of my Christian friends, as well as Michele, Kathryn, and others who get twitchy when I bring up the Bible. I had breakfast with my friend Vic a little while ago and we had some of this conversation--I mean this conversation. The one we've been having if you've read any of this stuff around here, or if you've been to see me at my Facebook, or on the sidewalk or whatever. Vic is a Christian, and about as solid a practitioner as I've ever met. He "works" as a prayer director for one of the internationally influential untaxed Christian pseudo-businesses one might easily enough find scattered around town here in Colorado Springs. Years ago I lived in Lindale, Texas and I used to say Lindale was the buckle of the Bible Belt. Now that some of the big organizations down in Lindale have disappeared due to fraud and embezzlement and the like and some of the people I knew down in East Texas have moved to this very town I sometimes say America's waistline has risen with age and the buckle has found a home in Colorado Springs. Anyhow, Vic is an affable guy and a good friend and we had a good time over our platesful of arterial lubrication such as we Americans like to do at breakfast. He said he had read some here on these e-pages--I aaalmost cringed because of a certain propensity of mine. Then I remembered one of the axiomatic rules I've taught my kids since they started picking up English: "There's no such thing as a bad word, only bad timing." It's time for this. Vic said he found some of the thoughts he'd come across here, "interesting," and mused that I had a bone to pick with "organized religion," which is true, but hasn't really come up at hipgnosis just yet, I don't think. I cringed a bit at having utilized terms like "motherfuckah" while discussing a Bible tidbit known as the Beatitudes from a longer passage known as the Sermon on the Mount. It's one of those axiomatic rules for lots of Christians, and for many who've never set foot in a Christian edifice as well. One finds the passage, (from the book of Matthew, chapter 5, in the Bible, if you're interested), hanging on wooden plaques and the like in people's living rooms and over their toilets and chapel entrances all over the world, and I suppose in every tongue still in print. I felt a twinge of embarrassment at the time that I get now and then from writing strongly about such grand subject matter knowing well that I'm no saint myself. So I brushed my way by that one at the time, and we went on with breakfast, and with other portions of the Conversation. That's why this is for Vic at the top of the
Willie and Waylon and Some Other Dude: A story about weed, marriage, and Texas tall tales, Part 2
For you, Willie. God bless the Hell out of ya! Alright, so this is all the same thought and I'm just thinkering around with it some for y'all. And it's all bullshit. I bet some of y'all forgot this was in the offing. I didn't, and it really is all one thought. It's about more than lost weekends or divorce fodder, too. It's about God and country, life, liberty, and the pursuit of revolution in the fast lane. Let's hope no one gets hurt, because it's not me in the fast lane. And you thought I was going to tell you something torrid, din'cha!? Wait--maybe I am! A lot of the guys that started this country--the U.S.A., where I live--were church folk. They tried real hard, ya have to grant, but they were church folk after all, so they had blinders on just like lots of church folk always have, and still do today. Get to lookin' too closely at the periphery of things and it's scary, don't we all know.... They came over here in the first place on the run from some other church folk, that wanted to kill the Hell out of them. So, naturally they immediately set about establishing a domicile, ( in someone else's back yard, mind you), where they could kill the shit out of everyone else, instead. After a while that arrangement started to smell a little funny--on account of the bullshit, see--and a few got together to to try and straighten things out. Besides, the Grand Game wasn't working out quite right and the game pieces kept getting scattered. The Occupiers read St. Thomas's Declaration at Acacia Park the other day, ( I call him St. Thomas just to mess with him--he was just as scrambled as the rest of us, if ya didn't know). It was a beautiful thing. It was beautiful when Kyle read it with his shredded voice. It was beautiful when Jefferson wrote it, and beautiful when they read it in the Boston Common. It's all the more applicable today if you crunch a few names and change a few numbers, and Jefferson would certainly be needing to restrain Patrick Henry from swinging blows by now if those guys lived now, and had let it all slide as far. Jefferson wrote the Declaration, , but he had nothing to do with the Bill o' Rights. He was out of town when they threw that stuff together, which they did 'cause they knew he hated the idea. In fact, he may have ditched town because he knew they were gonna just have to write it and he just couldn't stand it. He figured it best to leave well enough alone, for fear of a thing developing like we've heard, "Everything not forbidden is mandatory." Now would be the moment to mention that this is an axiom in--wait for it... Quantum Physics, stolen from literature fair and square by a fellow named Gell-Mann and named the "Totalitarian Principle". That's right--physicists see the poetry and the
If it weren’t for the nonviolence sneaks
In honor of Oct 2, the International Day of Nonviolence, which hardly any government of the world honors IN DEED, especially the league of NATO and USA's coalition of the killing. I thought I'd perseverate further on the role nonviolent dogma plays in squashing dissent. Here's my theme: If it weren't for the nonviolence sneaks the antiwar movement of the 60s might have deposed the military industrial complex before it became supersized, privatized and above the law. Or not, but NV claptrap certainly got us nowhere. If it weren't for the nonviolence sneaks, Gaza might have been liberated already. Nonviolent kabuki demonstrations have spoiled attempted marches from Egypt, have scuttled would-be flotillas, have squeezed out real activists from sailing to Gaza's rescue. Ask yourself, which brought more attention and sympathy for Palestinians, the Mavi Marmara or "The Audacity of Hope" which didn't even show audacity enough to confront Greek harbor keepers? The Turkish activists on the Marmara were nonviolent, but not neurotically so. They might have expelled their Israeli boarders, but we have to pretend at least surprise at the brutality of Israel's massacre. The US Boat on the other hand exchanged indignation over bullhorns without ever leaving the harbor, then stood down. Nonviolence doesn't mean passivity, really? If it weren't for the nonviolence sneaks, the Palestinian's right to defend their homeland from their occupiers would not be an issue. If Palestine was allowed to resist their invaders, Israel would stop trying to take it all. If it weren't for the nonviolence sneaks, Bush could not have stolen a second election and Americans wouldn't have had to settle for hope instead of change. If it wasn't for the nonviolence sneaks with their ultimatums of passivity, who knows how soon the New World Order might have been prevented? It's the nonviolence sneaks who are the most despicable provocateurs, alienating the 99% by ensuring public protest remain forever ineffectual. If it weren't for the nonviolence sneaks, antiwar movements would end war, social injustices would be righted, and greed brought to justice. If it weren't for the nonviolence sneaks who enforce public compliance, world governments would respect their people and couldn't rule by fear. If if wasn't for the nonviolence sneaks, the public's urgent will would be heeded, instead of dismissed for inconsequential whine it's become.
Pseu Pseu Pseudo-Do-Dah-Day
For Rob. Thanks buddy! Say hi to yer Mom. We've been toying with some pretty weird bits of thinking here, and it's already getting hard to follow. Lemme try and tie a few things together. Also, if you're still with me, now's a good time to point out that this humble site is best read in conjunction with the discussions on my Facebook, (Steve Bass), and for this bit, especially within the PPCC Philosophy Club page linked from my Wall or wherever it is. Remember my mention of Pseudo-statements back at Willie's story? Elsewhere, in Stage Magick and around about, notably at the PPCC Philosopy Club linked off my Facebook, I put up the business of our inability to prove a negative. The assertion that "This statement does not belong in the set of all true statements," is a nice example. The statement is internally self-defeating, negated by paradox; it's internally inconsistent, self-contradictory, neither true, nor false-- a pseudo-statement. The "set of all true statements" statement is a tidy example in that attempting an answer produces a nonsense response awfully reminiscent, at least to me, of the sort of thing that happens to those hapless physicists when they try to crunch their numbers beyond the event horizon and into the heart of the Singularity. Lots of PHDs get real pissy if you try and take their numbers and drag them into the "real" world here. Like most of us, abstractions are fine for them. Hanging flesh on the ephemeral turns it into a monster for some. I, on the other hand, have no such qualm. If matter isn't made of matter, as some rather esoteric physics appears to indicate, that most assuredly effects us, sez me. The problem of proving a negative is stickier than the "True Statements" statement, because we can somehow tell the essence of the genuinely self-defeating pseudo-statement is True. Something about the very idea is akin to the business of the Singularity--we can't seem to get there, or even define the nature of that There, but we know there has to be Something, OK? And thinking about it produces notions that resonate in our world. We've also talked some about politics, and here's the clincher. Our whole system, our World, maybe even our very Selves combine to make a big ol' Pseudo-statement, overburdened by internal paradox and contradiction, and decorated with infinite concentric, overlapping circles and waves of Pseudo-reality. The "Doctrine of the Many," claimed by Zoroastrians, Jains, some Gostics, among others, avers that we humans are compound beings. Some scientists at the fringe have claimed this as well, but let me keep this as political as I can for a moment. The concept surfaces in Western thinking when we speak of "talking to ourselves," which we all know can be quite an argument at times, and in notions like multiple personality. Most U.S. citizens will agree that we are a "Christian" nation in spite of that pesky 1st Amendment. We'll acknowledge "diversity" in religious matters,
Willie and Waylon and Some Other Guy: A story about weed, marriage, and Texas tall tales. Part I
I like telling the story of the time we went to Telluride with my brother David to catch the Bluegrass Festival there. Dave is a pretty dang famous fiddler, and this happened 13 or 14 years ago when his Freight Hoppers were riding a crest, having two then current Billboard Top 20 Americana list releases on Rounder, (Rounder is pretty much a ripoff, but that’s for another time). The Freight Hoppers were hot in Colorado, and their set would draw some 30, 000 festival-goers, with a respectable bevy of hairy Deadheads looking for an outlet following Jerry’s departure bouncing , flouncing and working their little Tai Chi dance up at the stage. Lots of really notable musicians liked them, too, and still do, actually. Anyhow, we would meet up with Dave and the band at the festivals after winding through a long cattle-line setup, to get to the will-call desk and pick up our magic-rainbow all-access wristbands and hang out all weekend with all these niche-famous musicians, eating, drinking, being merry, smoking, and playing music together. That shit is great! So one day we’re back stage chillin’ with Tony Furtado, (hi Tony—rock on!), and someone goes, “Is that Johnny Cash?” and sure enough, the Highwaymen had showed up to play an unscheduled set. We never made it away from whatever we were doing at the time to see them play, but not long later, as if they had come for no other purpose, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson show up looking for my brother to tell him how much they dig his music. How cool is that!? Well, we all got to jawin’, and knowing a little about Willie I pulled a little fairly decent weed out of my pocket and offered it, but Willie said, “Oh, no thanks, son, put that away,” and busted out some G13 mutant weed or something, and sparked the stoniest joint I’ve ever smoked in my life, to this very day. What a day! Now, Willie has always been a hero of mine. His heroes have always been cowboys, he says; mine have always been outlaws, and I always figured Willie for a true outlaw, to the core. I mean the guy runs for president on a platform built of pot smoke, with Ani DiFranco as his running mate. Go Willie! That’s why some things he’s said lately trouble me. I’ll get to that in a minute but the first order of business here is to retell that story one more time, (not that I won’t tell it again—it’s a great staple of mine at parties and such), and to let
More on the Anti-Muslim, Anti-Jewish, Anti-Christian 9/11 memorial hate-fest
One of the things that's being done in many places around the nation, even in churches and synagogues, is to have the children of the congregation, many as young as two, stand up and parrot the empty words of the Pledge of Allegiance and no, that isn't photoshopped, those are real American Kids chanting words they didn't understand to a graven image. Right after the "attack" which is avowed as The Official Story Being True, (But the officials who tell the story also said that there were WMDs in Iraq and the Wars are about "freedom"... so, where do the lies end?) children in schools across the land supposedly came up with the idea, with no coaching from their parents or teachers, to have a synchronized chanting of the Pledge. As a show of "patriotism". Kids who don't know what death is, or any of the myriad twists and turns of the lies needed to start and sustain wars... told by their teachers to do this, and to lie to the world and say it was their own idea. And if they didn't, they were "terrorists". Now, who could find any fault with that? How about maybe GOD? The Bible strictly prohibits making children swear oaths. Read the Laws of Moses before you jump down my throat about saying it. Jewish kids say an oath, Bat Mitzvah for the girls and Bar Mitzvah for the boys, when they're 13 years of age. The oath first Moses then Joshua had the people of Israel say. You see the cute little house sign that says "As for me, and MY house, we will serve the LORD"... without the rest of the stuff surrounding it like Joshua having anybody who didn't swear the mitzvah killed. Seriously, if you read the Old Testament with open eyes, it ain't going to be the same as they taught you in Sunday School. Which is where Jews have an advantage, they don't hold back and they do tell it like it's written. Before they swear the Bar/Bat Mitzvah they have to study and be tested to see if they really know what they're getting into. You can't say later that you just didn't know. The oath is that you will from that day forth ("choose, now, who you will serve...") obey every Law. So you have to KNOW every law. There's a catch to it, a huge gaping hole in it. Nobody ever kept the whole law, and swearing to do so but not doing it is a death-penalty offense. Sanhedrin after Sanhedrin have debated that point. Mostly because a lot of people in the world want to KILL a lot of other people in the world. And to feel no guilt about it. So there's a lot of noise bandied about in every religion that somehow there's an amendment, an invisible escape clause, to the "Thou shalt not kill" command. "Eye for an eye" keeps coming up. Doesn't work. If "Eye for an eye" were applied, the only people
I dunno, maybe that was some kind of sign, you reckon?
It's difficult to inject logic into either politics or faith without being the subject of a lynching, but here goes. There was a statue, 62 feet tall, of Jesus on the side of a highway in Ohio. People would actually pull over and pray to it. So last year about this time it was struck by lightning, caught fire and burned down. Or burned up. Means the same thing. Now, there's long been a controversy in Christianity and Judaism and Islam over the making of graven images and with special notice given to a statue, picture or whatever of God. Much Christian blood has been spilt by other Christians with Iconoclasm being one of the issues. The Hundred Years War for instance. Somebody who was crawling up out of the Medieval Tradition and had learned to read, and noticed that there was a discrepancy of sorts between "Thou shalt not make any graven image" and the Church tradition of making lots and lots of graven images. So, that left no choice but to wage bloody, expensive and generally tragic War for a hundred years, hence the name. There were other issues, mostly having to do with which Christian king got to own which land and the people therein. So, now, there's almost completed, another Touchdown Jesus statue being made by the same corporation which makes the fiberglass Big Boy hamburger franchise statues. With the notation of "it's lightning-proof". Here's where logic should be employed... If as the Bible says, God controls the storm, Jesus specifically, then it's pretty likely that God has decisively said "NO!" to the statue of His Incarnation Jesus, and building another one right in the same spot and DARING God to strike that one with lightning might not be all that good an idea. In fact, it might be considered downright foolish. And expensive, the last one cost $600,000 and the notion of fiscal conservativism is a big issue with Christians nowadays. Not that the ones who sing the loudest praises of conservativism actually conserve anything but that's a longstanding pet peeve of mine and y'all probably already noticed that it's my pet peeve. I was thinking of getting a dog and naming it Peeve so I could go around saying "that's my pet, Peeve" but the humor would wear off after about, o, I dunno, the second time I told the joke. Dogs sometimes live to be twenty years old and I don't think the joke would last quite that long. But back to the theme, spending more than a half million to replace a statue that God already rejected, kind of violently and to the point, one could say "in a shocking display" is, I don't know, maybe "squandering" as opposed to "saving". Mind you, it's not my money. I do, however, wish and pray that people would stop doing things to make Christians look stupid. In a related theme, a preacher named Pat Robertson has often tried to make White Southern Christians look stupid by telling the entire world that White Southern Christians all agree
“Psychic Tip” is enough to get a No-Knock Search Warrant…WTF?
So the AP headline was "Texas farmhouse searched on Psychic Tip, no bodies found". WHAT? I'm not in the least concerned that there wasn't any evidence found, I myself can "psycho-ly" predict that particular outcome. Not one single Scientifically Empirically Verified psychic prediction of ANY of the major news-generating Historic events has ever been brought forth. Not Pearl Harbor, not the death of any political leader, not any major natural disaster, not 9/11, the whereabouts of Usama bin Laden, two space shuttle disasters, the surprise launch of Sputnik, NOTHING. Psychic phenomena is about the most documented to be least accurate form of Evidence. So what comes next? Do the cops, prosecutors, judges and other Tools of the Police State actually get to maybe Convict somebody based on some jackass who claims a Direct Link To God saying that he's convinced the defendant is guilty? I mean, a Search Warrant supposedly has stringent rules of evidence just to obtain one, It's like an actual conversation I overheard between a police officer and somebody else, the cop complaining because he wasn't allowed to shake somebody down even though he "knew" the person was in possession of contraband. Asked HOW he "knew" he said "my gut tells me, OK?" NO, Officer, NOT OK. Your gut was probably telling you it was time to take a 10-100 at Dunkin' Donuts. The Constitutional prohibitions against Irrational Hunches being used to obtain search warrants or arrest warrants are there for a reason. It leads to a situation where any cop can search, arrest or kill any person just because he says so. It's purest Lynch Law mentality, on the hoof. And this particular case was in TEXAS? WTF Revisited? Texas whose political options involve voting for somebody endorsed by the General Baptist Convention or one endorsed by the Southern Baptist Convention. Where you'd be loudly condemned to the Everlasting Fire of Hell for wearing an astrological pendant or asking a potential breeding partner "So, babe, what's your sign?" And at least one court is issuing warrants based on "Minority Report" without any of the (shaky) Scientific trappings.
Nonviolence works, but Jesus saves
How is an antiwar message advocating a metaphysical ideal any different than saying that My God is better than Yours? My pacifist colleagues have distilled their protest slogan to "Nonviolence Works" which I believe is as provable as "Jesus Saves." Neither ideology can reduce beyond the afterlife. My god says love your neighbors. So what? Mine says kill my enemies. And what's more, God forgives me, particularly what I do in His name. To assail American Christian crusaders with with the logic of moral superiority is to argue that my god can lick your god. Believe me, God America is kicking Muslim ass on that front every day. Beside which, at best you're telling someone who wants to believe 2 plus 2 equals 3 that 3 & 1/2 is close enough.
THEY can’t afford feudal serfdom any more than US
Meaning the Corporates. Like Bush and Walker. They've sunk their assets and their asses into the credit economy deep. They broke it and expect US to make all the concessions so they can salvage enough of the system to support their luxury lifestyle. It's gone, gone gone... They'll have real estate without tenants or maintenance, cars without gas or drivers, WideScreen MegaUltra-3D televisions without electricity or audiences. roads that nobody could drive on even if they DID have cars and gas, and no way to pay the Working Class people they've hired to guard their palaces. Their "liquid" assets are phantoms, Credit Cards, Mortgages, car loans. Bush is scheduled to ride his ass into town on what, Palm Sunday, Good Friday? I'll have to check the date. Into a town they look upon as being the New Jerusalem, to be lauded by the New Priesthood at the New Temple to their god Mammon. Blasphemy, yes. It is. And I'm sure they are aware of it. Gov Walker is actually from here, you know. They scheduled the "Lion's Heart" award ceremony before Scott Walkers Putsch, although that was probably coordinated too, Maybe Sir Scott of Walker was going to present King George with the head of American Labor on a silver charger. OK so the Royalist and religious metaphors overlap a lot and I, for one, can't help the fact that their corporate church and corporate state are built on contradictions. But I'm placing my bet that Scott Walker is on the scheduled Evenings Entertainment. Mene, mene, tekel upharsim Mene, Mene, tekel peres
Death of a Chaplain.
First, it should be noted that Doctors, Psychiatrists and Chaplains are, like everybody else in the services, Combatants under the Geneva Conventions. Their orders are to keep the soldiers physically and mentally and "morally" able to follow their orders, which are to Kill Other Human Beings. That's the whole purpose of a Military Organization. Although sometimes, if the Other Human Beings grovel enough to them (like Karzhai and al Maliki do) they'll be allowed to live, just as slaves. So when a "Mountain Post" Chaplain, Baptist Minister, got blown away in VietRaqiStan early last month, and the local news kept up the steady patter about how he volunteered for "duty" after the 9/11 Bush-ordered Mass Murder, to spread the word of Jesus. Only, Jesus never told anybody to Kill anybody. So Chaplains have to make shit up in order to justify what they're ordered to do, keep the Soldiers and Airmen and Marines and Sailors from feelings of guilt and remorse over Killing Other Human Beings. Preachers, religious leaders, and other propagandists for the Enemy-du-Jour are frequently targeted under legal codes naming them as accomplices. Under the Bush Doctrine, which Obama never repealed, anybody who "gives aid and comfort" even by failing to enthusiastically support Killing Other Human Beings could be determined by a Homeland Security or Military or even Mercenary Contractor Assassination Squad to be an Enemy Combatant. Without, of course, trial, charges, any kind of Rule of Law stuff. These are the same kinds of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity for which first Nazis convicted at Nurnberg and many Iraqi officials were executed. But because the U.S. Chaplains are Americans and for the most part Christian (there are also Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Native American Church, Wiccan etc Chaplains, so it's almost an equal opportunity to sell the souls of your congregation deal), well, you do the math. But, really, what exactly differentiates a Christian Chaplain from any other propagandist? In Christian, Judaic and Muslim laws one of God's Top Ten List is "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain". I don't know the details on Sikh or Hindu or Buddhist or whoever else, completely out of range of my experience. I'm pretty sure they've got laws against blasphemy and killing as well. Fact is, the Chaplain in question wasn't, under the definitions he was hired and commanded to propagate and reinforce, "murdered". But that's a technicality. He might have embraced it, in fact there's no way to be a Military (or Paramilitary, like the Police) Chaplain and say anything at all contrary to what you're ordered to say. Not ordered by God to say it, but by the Empire. That brings up another issue. The Chaplains are also commanded (and could conceivably get the death penalty under a charge of Mutiny) to tell their Congregants that GOD, Himself, tells them they must obey every order of the Emperor. The good Chaplain might have accepted these precepts, and sold them wholesale to his flock, (Pastor
John B. Spencer’s lost Christmas lyric for Will Your House Be Blessed?
Gathering songs for a Christmas compilation, I went looking through different versions of "Will This House be Blessed?" by John B. Spencer. While the forgiveness spirit is in keeping with the season, everyone else's cover lacked whatever it was I remembered tied the song literally to Christmas. I finally found Spencer's original recording and there it was, an Easter reference actually, but too much irreligious specificity apparently for subsequent renditions. Everybody since Spencer omits his last verse, instead repeating the first, which they also alter to "Let it go, let it go" and not "Let him go." For the record, versions by Harry Manx, Richard Thompson, and Martin Simpson et al. go by the more assuring title, absent the question mark, ONLY THEN WILL YOUR HOUSE BE BLESSED. But here's how John B sang it: Let him go, let him go, let him go, go, go Let your sword of vengeance rest. ?Do the blind lead the blind?? Don’t be cruel to be kind.? Only then will your house be blessed. Turn your cheek, turn your cheek? Turn your other cheek,? Make your mercy manifest.? When the hawk and the dove? Fly in circles ’round your love,? Only then will your house be blessed. Offer prayer, offer prayer,? Offer one small prayer? To your uninvited guest.? Don’t deny him his right,? Make him welcome through the night. ?Only then will your house be blessed. Pull the nails from the cross. Pull the cross from the hill. Lay the body and soul to rest. May the blood that's been spilt --Drown your guilt. Only then will your house be blessed.
Was Jesus a Muslim (tee-hee)?
Listening to Islamic studies scholar Robert Shedinger taunt the CC audience with whether Jesus may have been a Muslim reminds me of the not-so-old joke about returning the Statue of Liberty to the French, because we're not using her anymore. At his fundamental, Jesus espoused what we are accustomed to consider were basic Christian Values, but who are American Christians to lay claim to those anymore? Islam, on the other hand, is a religion to suit the poor and oppressed, traditionally Jesus' favorites. Unless we're talking Embed Jesus. Shedinger urged "constructive dialog" between Muslims and Christians, that each might learn of our common ideals. But his lesson would seem to be entirely for the Christians. All religions share the Golden Rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, although one might doubt Americans have given that much thought for awhile. While many would argue that American religious hypocrisy has been growing fetid over the course of a centuries of imperialist invasions and wars, the Fundamentalist Christian/Moral Majority "WWJD" has taken a turn since 9/11 to mean bomb, maim and torture. Has the American Jesus become Un-Christian, or is this the New World Order Christianity? In spite of what may be pious America's best intentions, Capitalism has relegated its moral cover to doublespeak and subterfuge, American churchgoers to dupes, and US missionaries to unwitting cohorts to the deprivations of our businessmen, soldiers and loan officers. The War on Islam isn't being waged by Christianity Proper, but by the systemic greed of Western Capitalism, secular and godless, unless you count money to be divine. Capitalism may have Xmas, but it has no claim on Jesus.
Beck says that a flock of geese means he’s Gods Anointed One.
Kind of like the Miracle Inflamed Hemorrhoid that kept his buddy Rush from not only the draft, but enlisting as well. On our blog, one of Glenn's Peeps wrote the other day that if we don't join their Hate Speech Mob we must be cowards. What an amazing Epiphany that was! Here I'd always thought that people bunching together in a Mob was cowardice. What a wonderfully miraculous revelation that it's the other way round. Seriously, birds have been flying over Washing Tundy Sea for however long there's been birds. It's built partially in a swamp and in a very riparian ecosystem with lots of creeks and of course the Potomac River. Maybe God kept those birds from nesting anywhere near there for thousands of years and thus it's miraculous that they Flew Up at a time when His Satanic Majesty was bloviating. What's his next miracle going to be, will he make the sun rise in the East instead of the Northwest as it usually does? Oh, and actually predict the exact time it will rise, by consulting the Arcane Book of The National Weather Service... Score one for Christ, because now, even people who don't believe in Him, now will believe that Satan is alive and well. And it IS a religious experience, I did take the name of God in vain several times just contemplating the sheer stupidity of this. "Oh Sweet Jesus, the stupid bastard thinks a flock of birds has anointed him Supreme High Priest! Oh God that's the stupidest thing I've heard in Oh God Make it stop!" TeaTards, the gift that keeps on giving.
Missionaries say they don’t proselytize
No, and that's not why the Christian International Aid Mission was banished from Afghanistan, and why the US invasion reinstated it. Ask its volunteers why they don't exert their humanitarian impulses for non-religious operations, then you'll be getting past these pleas of feigned victimization. Missionary-tourism brochures extol bringing your faith "through the witness of humanitarian aid." We're informed the missionaries killed in Afghanistan were bringing toothbrushes to youngsters who'd never seen toothbrushes before. Having floated that sparkling meme, the media would have us ignore the preponderance of photographs of smiling Afghan children, sporting cleaner smiles than the average American child. Not having "tooth brushes" does not mean their culture has subsisted without dental care. Perhaps the missionaries should like to impress us that they are bringing Velcro shoe-fasteners to children who know only shoe laces. Reading about American missionaries on the receiving end of Islamic wrath, I found this quote by 23-year-old Allen Nunnally, caught up in the Ugandan bombing that targeted western missionaries assembled to watch the World Cup. The explosions killed a missionary from Delaware and wounded others from Pennsylvania. Even among United Methodists there are denominational loyalties. "There was blood everywhere. There was blood on us," Nunnally told The Birmingham News, but none of the Alabamans were hurt. "At first we didn't know if it was ours. But we were literally untouched. We are so blessed and so in awe of God's protection of us."
Mark Twain: Oh Lord our God, help us tear their soldiers to bloody shreds
“O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle — be Thou near them! "With them — in spirit — we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. "O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; "help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; "help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; "help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; "help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; "help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it "— for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, "blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! "We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. "Amen." -from Mark Twain's The War Prayer
They shoot up churches, bomb mosques, and soon this…
Not the bombing of "Radical" Synagogues who oppose the non-genocide-but-enforced-enslavement-of-Arabs, through the use of many many instances of Murder, no, the IDF will take care of THAT part... This is about Guam, "liberated" by the U.S. from the Empire of Japan. (and British, Australian, Nationalist and Communist Chinese, VietMinh and a few hundred other groups who took part in the "American" operations against Japan) And one of the Native Churches there. Why not call it a church? Well, to the Reich Wing that appellation only belongs, and in a limited sense, to Christian and Jewish places of worship. They've already sent one of their "Mad Dog/Lone Wolf" operatives into an American CHURCH in Knoxville Tennessee, still awaiting trial... spurred on by Anti-Peace Activists at Fox News and other pro-war, pro-paganda outlets. This is about a site on Guam, Pagal. Much like our own Garden of the Gods, or like Hueco Tanks, one OTHER site the U.S. Cavalry has its nasty little piggy eyes on, or the Great Wheel at Standing Bear Butte... Just like the Army enforced laws forbidding Native Americans to practice our customs, sometimes as with the Colorado and Utah statutes against Ute "witchcraft". Or the Ghost Dance. Or the Medicine Council that Custer tried to break up forcibly at the Little Bighorn... Carrying on the PROUD tradition of the Army not giving three shits about the customs of the people they "liberated" and instead feeling revulsion and scorn toward any who dare to not be GRATEFUL for their Overlordship errr... Liberation On A Leash... This is a direct quoted reprint from Fellow Peace-man Bruce Gagnon. Pagat, a sacred site in Guam, has served as a center for the communal revitalization of the indigenous Chamorro people for millennia. Now, sixty-five years after the U.S. liberation of the tiny island (half the size of Okinawa) from imperial Japan—the U.S. military wants to transform this beloved gathering spot into a firing range. This threat to the sacred is one of many U.S. plans in its proposal to militarize even more of Guam, 30% of which is already covered with military bases. For more info on Guam organizing look HERE I swear by the Lord God who made us all that if there weren't so many War Contractors living nearby the WarPigs at Ft Carson would turn Garden of the Gods or downtown Colorado Springs into a firing range. Might as well, they dump their Toxic Waste from their existing firing ranges, including the Depleted Uranium shells they've devastated Iraq with, into our water supply, with no apologies.
12 credit cards, 12 different names, delivered to same address, same day
Which I witnessed, there’s this relative of mine who, for lack of a better word, is a Thief. To be fair to MasterCharge and whatever Visa’s old name was (I’ll look it up) they DID reject half the applications. He put in 25. He only stayed at our house for a week and a half and with that one scam got about $25,000 which he promptly took to Las Vegas. Gambling is a more expensive vice than any dope. But when I go to a local supermarket there’s a big push on for people to sign up for a 1-2-3 Rewards MasterCard. My usual joke for the past 6 damn years was that even MasterCard wouldn’t be dumb enough to give me a card. All the people there have heard me reject the offer of this credit card. Yet I’m still asked. I know the people, they’re not dumb in any way, Mass Senility seems to be out of the question. So why the Ask? They have an internet-based customer opinion poll and one of the questions (just not on every single instance of the poll) is “Did the clerk offer you the 1-2-3 Rewards Master Card promotion?” It turns out, they’re required to offer it. My little heh-heh-heh joke about MasterCard not being stupid enough to issue me “credit” was just that, a joke because I’m not rude enough to get in my friends’ faces and tell them in a big nasty public scene that the whole notion of the credit cards is a scam, strongly related to the ongoing bank scam involving real estate, mortgages and Toxic Debt. I go to a grocery store to buy groceries, not to buy Debt. And as the incident with which I started the narrative shows, yes, they WOULD be stupid enough. Or greedy enough. For every Cousin-doing-life-on-the-installment-plan there’s enough honest citizens, also known as “marks”, who will buy into the Credit Card scam, that the small-time thieves are written off as a business expense. And the loss taken off their income taxes, which has been loopholed to the point that a Corporate Entity can pay less in taxes than their workers do. Yet another scam written by the same Corporate Lawyers who can charge you compound interest on a Credit Card Debt, something which would otherwise be known as “Loan Sharking” and “usury” and would be illegal. So I don’t jump into it. There’s a report circulating that Krogers stores are requiring their clerks to offer the Scam Card. Required as in “punished if they don’t” If YOU or I were to offer local stores the option of selling my products at a price I demand and with the clause “or else” it would be called Racketeering. Something which the Anti-Union type of Thieves, including the board of directors of Kroger, accuse the UNIONS of doing. For a legal and Religious point of view, many Christian sects prevalent in the area, like Mennonites, other Anabaptist sects, refuse to buy into
And behold, a Star fell from the heavens onto the face of the seas.
And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea. To be fair, the second picture isn't of the BP spill, it's the Ixtoxl spill. Which is the name of a MesoAmerican religious figure. And, yes, this one is for the Drill, Baby, Drill! Palin fans. Since she is a Lay Minister in a Pentecost church, something the Assemblies of God churches used to strictly prohibit, along with women wearing pantsuits. In my lifetime I've heard the AOG and others use the term "Whore of Babylon" to describe people who dress a lot more conservatively. Not that I think she's (very much) more of a candidate for that Exalted Dishonor, also from The Revelation to St John the Divine than many others. They called Nancy Reagan that when Ronnie dumped his first ol' lady for her. Just, you know, sayin' is all. And since both chez Reagan and chez Palin belong to a particularly strong blasphemy within Fundamentalism called Dominionism, which preaches that the world is Ours and we can do whatever the literal Hell we want with it. If you want to hear some truly retarded dominionist thinking tune in DumFox Noose Nutwerx and listen to Sarah and Hannity and Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck, Bill Oh, Really? They're advancing the notion that it was the fault of Environmentalists. Everything ranging from "Oh, if those Environmentalists had simply allowed us to poison the waters flowing from the Great Divide by cooking Oil Shale, this wouldn't have happened (yet)!" to some really paranoid theories about sabotage. But, according to them, it's environmental protection legislation that caused the problem. Because they don't want to pay the Bill, baby, Bill! Or more importantly their Corporate Masters don't.