First up from the God Machine this week is an interesting twist in Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-Minn.) anti-Muslim witch-hunt in Washington. While much of the recent debate has been within the Republican Party, yesterday, for the first time, President Obama weighed in.
In the East Room of the White House, Obama hosted the fourth Iftar Dinner of his presidency, and devoted a portion of his remarks to the larger controversy launched by far-right voices within the Republican Party.
"They are entrepreneurs and lawyers, community leaders, members of our military, and Muslim American women serving with distinction in government. And that includes a good friend, Huma Abedin, who has worked tirelessly in the White House, in the U.S. Senate, and most exhaustingly, at the State Department, where she has been nothing less than extraordinary in representing our country and the democratic values that we hold dear. [Secretary of State Hillary Clinton] has relied on her expertise, and so have I.
"The American people owe her a debt of gratitude -- because Huma is an American patriot, and an example of what we need in this country -- more public servants with her sense of decency, her grace and her generosity of spirit. So, on behalf of all Americans, we thank you so much.
"These are the faces of Islam in America. These are just a few of the Muslim Americans who strengthen our country every single day. This is the diversity that makes us Americans; the pluralism that we will never lose."
It would appear Bachmann and her GOP defenders disagree, but it was nevertheless heartening to see the president express the sentiment anyway.
Also from the God Machine this week:
* Radical TV preacher Pat Robertson blamed "Satanic" atheists for last weekend's massacre at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. If there's a coherent explanation for this, I can't think of it.
* It certainly wasn't easy, but the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, opened its doors yesterday. The severe challenges facing a mosque in Joplin, Missouri, are still ongoing.
* The strangely-worded Amendment 2 in Missouri passed this week, and it seems likely to spark quite a bit of confusing and costly litigation.
* The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the nation's largest group of American nuns, "sidestepped a confrontation" with the Vatican yesterday, announcing it would "'dialogue' with the archbishop appointed by the Vatican to take over their group, but not 'compromise the integrity' of their mission."
* An interesting study (pdf) was released this week on the "Global Index of Religion and Atheism." Among the findings are a general trend away from religion among countries that acquire more wealth (thanks to R.P. for the tip).
Leave a Comment:
"Witch Hunt" is an appropriate name for the latest Republican hysteria over their own ignorance!
In the original Salem witch hunts the motivation was either revenge, jealousy, spite or mass hysteria.
Even a cursory examination of today's accusations will uncover instances of that same " revenge, jealousy, spite or mass hysteria."
Republicans: still living in the 17th Century!
...and, suddenly, Christine O'Donnell's "I am not a witch" campaign actually makes some sense! Huh. Thanks.
;-)
Michelle Bachmann is the face of ingratitude and ignorance. We have the means to know the plight of women in countries which aren't America and here we have a woman who is not grateful for her accidental birth that bestowed upon her the right to vote and speak in public, the freedom to dress and travel as she chooses, her ability to be a full citizen, drive, own property, etc, etc, freekin' etc.
There is no excuse for women like Bachmann whose birth placed them in America to use such freedoms to witch-hunt others. Hers is a willfully ungrateful heart.
Radical, Right-Wing, social engineering, racist, homophobic, women-hating, facists
use God as a weapon and Jesus as a mascot.
Praise the lord and pass the ammo and the K.Y. forward please !!!
Do you think Jesus would hate all the same people that Reich-Wing-Nuts do ?
Love America - Hate Americans Rightys. How very ' founding fathers ' of you.
some additional "twig" news:
in the wake of the murdoch phone hacking scandal, the church of england has dumped their $3 million worth of newscorp stock.
"The church says in a statement Tuesday it is not satisfied that News Corp. has shown, or is likely to show, a commitment to reform its business practices following evidence of illegal eavesdropping at the defunct News of the World newspaper."
http://news.yahoo.com/church-england-sells-3m-news-corp-shares-over-184338799.html
and 90,000 orthodox jews gathered at metlife stadium in the meadowlands to celebrate reading the entire 2,000 pages of the talmud
" 'It's the Super Bowl,' Y.M. Siff said. In fact, with nearly 90,000 in the audience, the celebration actually topped the attendance of the last Super Bowl. "
http://www.npr.org/2012/08/04/158122931/jewish-super-bowl-praises-years-of-talmudic-study?ft=3&f=1001&sc=nl&cc=nh-20120805
So the Vatican has appointed three bishops to rein in the nuns. The old white guys are afraid of educated, compassionate women whose behavior is above reproach. What is the true agenda of the church, if it fears those dedicated to caring for the flock? Is dogma more important than the welfare of the people that the church allegedly lives to serve? Just askin.
The Pope isn't known as Ratzi the Nazi for nothing.
What a cast of characters Catholic leadership must be... I can imagine it's the same soul-selling dehumanizing process to climb the Catholic ladder as it is to climb the corporate ladder...and those who gain some height will do whatever it takes to keep their rung, including haranguing nuns.
Pat Robertson is exercising his "religious" liberty to call others Satanic. Figures.
Buddhists are non-theists, not a-theists. As far as I know they are also religious (and there are 900 million of them in the world).
"Satanic atheists"? Really? That must be some acid trip Patty Boy is on.
atheists don't believe in the devil, Pat.
oxymoron much pat?
Pat Robertson is putting the 'moron' in 'oxymoron'. Again.
Isn't Satanic atheists a contradiction of terms?
No, it's a heavy metal rock band with a lead piccolo! -Kevo
Why are they always "Satanic" atheists.
What about all the "Warm, fuzzy little kitty" atheists?
The good nuns, for good, politically pragmatic reasons, may have sidestepped a confrontation with the archbishop, but they're not likely to hold their fire against the Rand, Ryan and Romney ticket.
We can only pray that they do. Doesn't everyone know not to cross a nun? And a bunch of them?
Those nuns are a match for the idiots who are running the Catholic church into the ground with their politics and their pedophilia. I have never heard of a nun doing anything worse than whacking a deserving idiot in the knuckles with a ruler.
Rand, Ryan, and Romney don't stand a chance against them. And I, for one, am glad that things seem to be getting back to "normal" in one small piece of America.
I went to a Catholic grade school and there were 52 kids in the classroom. We all behaved because if we misbehaved the nuns were there with their rulers. If you went home and complained to your parents about anything they made you admit what you did then they punished you too.
Nowadays parents think anything their kids do, or lie about is ok and heaven help anyone who calls their kid to task for misbehaving. They listen to their kids admit what they did wrong and STILL threaten to sue the victim of their kids misbehavior. It's shameful.
It's also a big part of why our country is going to heck in a hand basket. Everybody is a "victim" and no one is responsible for their own stupidity.
Steal someone's car keys and then smash up their car? Well, they should have hidden their keys better, or had better insurance. Shameful.
We would all be better off if we acted like nuns are watching 24/7. Imagine how much better people would behave? No cell phone conversations in public. I would love not to know the details of your life. I have my own life thank you.
Drugs? Nope. The ruler comes out.
Witch hunts against patriotic Americans who love their country (YES,YOU MICHELLE BACHMAN)? Ruler.
Ok, I feel better now but just thought of something. Gosh, we don't have enough nuns or enough rulers, do we???
It's just a matter of time before Romney miss-speaks and says the the truth calling the campaign the "Romney Lyan" campaign! LOL
Well, he does tend to confess when he names his animals, Seamus (Shame us) and Super Hit (Poor horse that they filled with pain killers before they sold it).
I wait for his next confession. ; >
Also from Robertson this week: "I defy these homosexuals to bring forth a baby from that part of the anatomy which they concentrate on, when that happens I will change everything I’m saying; until that happens, I wish those demonstrators would shut their mouth." Nice.
Robertson has always been a Grade-A cretin and jackass, but he really outdid himself on this one. There's just so much crazy and hate packed into these remarks. I mean, first of all, it's pretty obvious that it's Robertson himself who has the anatomical obsession. He'd do better to concentrate on his obvious mental-health issues rather than on the anuses of other men. And then there's his assumption that gay people can't reproduce. Of course gay people can have kids. All the bits still work. Kids aren't an impossibility. It may take some extra effort, but it can be done and has been done. Just ask Mary Cheney, for one.
But what I find to be the real kick in the gut is his apparent belief that unless you have reproduced yourself, you don't have the same rights as people who have. His underlying assumption seems to be that unless you breed, you're not fully human and have no worth as a person. I am not gay, but I'm not heteronormal, either. It's complicated and mostly irrelevant to this specific topic, except to the extent that one result of who I am means that I never had kids. I'm not even wired to ever have wanted kids. So there is a certain amount of selfishness and self-centeredness for me to find these remark's of Robertson's to be so outrageously offensive when they have so much competition, but at least I'm being honest about that.
At the bottom of Robertson's mindset is the belief that unless you can check off all the items on an imaginary list of what it required to be 'normal', then you don't count. You have no value, you have no rights. Just shut up and disappear yourself. You're offending the real people by your mere presence.
And Robertson isn't just devaluing gay people. These particular remarks of Robertson's were aimed at gay people, certainly, but as I pointed out it's very possible to not be gay and to still not have kids. There's a lot of collateral damage inflicted by Robertson's insane ravings. Apart from LGBT people generally, he also devalued all the 'normal' people who for whatever reason may have chosen not to have kids or are incapable of having kids. Should they also just shut up, Pat?
Ugh.
I need to get into a better mood. Anybody hear any good breeder jokes lately?
I'm very much opposed to placing value on people based on their reproducing. There is too much expectations of conformity in this world for my taste. I think it's quite repulsive to say to anyone that is different that they are not good enough and should stay on the sideline if they do not do as expected of them. We all have a place in the world and there is too much categorizing and awarding status based on whatever someone else deems is "worthy".
I am sickened by the glibness of this #$%^ to throw out fellow humans so readily.
What purpose do people have in this world other than breeding? Plenty of people offering their talent to humanity that never reproduced, for whatever reason. That is not my business to say what someone's purpose may be. Perhaps being the person we are is sufficient for us all.
http://www.dance.net/topic/6554867/1/20..
Tell me about it. Even 'nonconformists' demand their own kind of conformity. That can make it tough if you're genuinely different. Oh, well. A word with over seven billion people in it means plenty of room to be different in, and a wide selection of people to associate with (or not). And then there are religious-right figures who feel the need to intrude everywhere and tell us all how to live and behave.
If breeding were the most important thing, I have to wonder Robertson didn't follow the logic of his belief and off himself after his children had all left home. After all, what further purpose does his now non-reproductive life now serve?
Do you prefer clean or naughty? My Dad used to tell us clean, and really funny jokes. My friends were always good for the naughty ones. LOL ; >
Your dad told breeder jokes!? Excuse me while I fetch a broom and dustpan to sweep my jaw off the floor.
OK, feeling a bit corny and in need of at least an eye roll, so here goes:
What do you get if you cross a vampire and a circus entertainer ?
Something that goes straight for the juggler !
Dear Pat,
STFU.
Pat Robinson is a satanic religionist, and he's the leader and mouthpiece for far too many of the same ilk to whom he's given permission that they may freely go forth, judge, and find fault in their fellow man.
Cuz we know atheists fully embrace all the historical figures of the Bible except for God. Satan WOULD be the next logical choice. (Jesus being the son of a non-existent deity rules him out as second banana for the truly devout atheist)
alas, there are no historical figures in the bible except perhaps some badly mangled versions of Romans. We have no evidence of some god/man existed at all, and I know that christians are not claiming that they worship some itinerant rabbi. No one noticed this being supposedly gathering thousands of people (indeed if the bible is to be believed at least a Roman legion's worth) just outside of an occupied city. No one saw the supposed events around the cruxifiction, no earthquake, sun darkening, etc around the various times that Christians claim that this happened. There is no evidence for any of the bible's important events, no flood, no destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, no exodus or its plagues. No evidence of apostles doing any miracles, or indeed any evidence for any miracles at all.
And Mr. Jacobs, it seems like you are intending to misuse words in order to convince yourself that Christianity is just as valid as the facts that support atheism. I am not "devout" to them, and I certainly find it amusing that you would claim that Satan exists and that I would believe in it when I don't believe in the other bogeyman you would trot out, your god. I do expect you to show evidence of such things, rather than depending on baseless claims, no better than a animist priest in Africa or a Scientologist with their meters.
So now if I teach science in Missouri I can be sued.
Okay. Let's make the most of it.
Q. Explain the dispersion of species to geographic areas after the ark landed on mount Ararat. Include method of locomotion of small mammals for thousands of miles over a lifetime of a few years, the food sources of carnivores with only two herbivores each to feed on, and speculation on the will of God as to why He put certain animals where. (e.g. Marsupials concentrated in Oceana).
Speculate on why dust was used to make half of the homo sapiens species, but the other half was generated by extrapolation of seed organic material. (i.e. a costa)
Compare and contrast the divine, true, unassailable documentation of God's creation from the Book of Genesis with the ridiculous Greek myth of creation involving Prometheus and Athena. (Hint: Costa)
Explain the creation of sexes for animals and none for homo sapiens. Speculate on the anatomy of the first homo sapiens and explain God's will for it. Define "help meet" and why was the creation of human gender necessary. What was suggested as an alternative first?
Compare and contrast the creation of angels and the cyclops. How were the repercussions similar or different? Speculate on the divine will that led to the creation of these second-level creations preceding the more perfect ones.
I guess I would STILL get sued, but we might get a more thorough story of Genesis out of it.
The coherent explanation for Mr. Robertson's lies is that he will do and say anything in his desperate attempt to paint those who don't agree with him in a bad light. He has no problems in bearing false witness and this indicates he has created his own version of Christianity, like every Christian does, picking and choosing what he wants to be "right", no divinity needed at all only puny human motivations.