First up from the God Machine this week is a report on the Values Voter Summit, the nation's largest annual gathering for the religious right movement, which began yesterday in D.C. Despite the truly nutty organizers and guest list, the VVS welcomed a lengthy list of notable Republican speakers, including Paul Ryan and a video address from Mitt Romney.
Of particular interest, though, was a man who calls himself Kamal Saleem. His self-assigned title: "former terrorist."
He had all kinds of unique insights to share, but I found this one especially interesting. According to Saleem, whose real name is Khodor Shami, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is currently working with Islamic countries and the United Nations to "subjugate American people to be arrested and put to jail and their churches and synagogues shut down." All of this, he said, will happen early next year -- March, at the latest.
Values Voter Summit attendees, instead of turning to one another and asking, "What on earth is this strange man talking about?" actually cheered Saleem's bizarre conspiracy theories.
As Rachel noted on the show last night, this is the same right-wing activist who says President Obama is secretly praying Islamic prayers when it looks like he's pledging allegiance to the American flag; insists Americans will be "wearing rag heads" if immigration reform is approved; and argues that the Roe v. Wade precedent leads to "Sharia law."
Right Wing Watch added, "We have been covering the absurd, bizarre and paranoid rantings of phony ex-terrorist Kamal Saleem as he emerged on the Religious Right scene, and today he had his biggest platform yet at the Values Voter Summit, where he was preceded by Ohio congressman Jim Jordan and a video message by Mitt Romney."
Joining this fake former terrorist on the guest list is the Republican presidential nominee, the Republican vice presidential nominee, two sitting Republican governors, two sitting Republican U.S. senators, and six sitting Republican U.S. House members, including the House Majority Leader.
I hope I'm not the only one who finds this rather disconcerting.
Also from the God Machine this week:
* Sister Pat Farrell, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, joined a group of 102 other faith leaders this week urging Republican governors to drop their opposition to the Affordable Care Act and accept the law's Medicaid expansion. "Depriving struggling families of healthcare is wholly incompatible with the teachings of our faiths and the ideals of our nation," the statement reads.
* Though historically the divisions between Christians and Muslims in Kenya have been minimal, the "veneer of tolerance" has been "ripped open recently," with at least five churches, including the Christian Salvation Army in the poor Muslim district of Majengo, facing attacks this year (thanks to reader R.P. for the tip).
* And President Obama released a new video this week recognizing Rosh Hashnah and Yom Kippur.
Leave a Comment:
You certainly are not the only one to be disconcerted by the Saleem situation. This guy is looney tunes. After the GOP wrath that rained down on Todd Akin, I cannot believe that the GOP leaders would not immediately distance themselves from Saleem's ridiculous rhetoric. I have not been aware of any "distancing happening", have you?
Also, I am so perplexed as to why the Romney campaign would send Ryan to this event with these sketchy characters attending. Also Romney already has the vote of these people; shouldn't he be working to recruit the undecided voters?
I agree. This is the voting bloc that Romney has firmly in his pocket, or so I thought. Unless he is not quite sure of their support for a Mormon and wants to solidy the base, but I would think this would drive moderates away. I realize these people have a deep-seated hatred for Obama (I think because he is black), but it does perplex me that they are ready to join hands with a Mormon, a religion they have always deemed a cult.
Firstly, I can't stand Obama and I am Black. So, your first theory, JoyP goes down the toilet where it belongs. Second, the same people believe that Catholicism is a cult and yet they vote for Catholics all the time. It has to do with who is best for this country. NOT what color or religion they are. Obama is a walking disaster!
No, JoyP's theory does not go down the toilet. Your argument is a non-sequitur. Because some black people do not like Barack Obama does not imply that there are not white (or black) people who are racist or that there are people who are the racist attitudes of others as a campaign tactic.
You are wrong.
I have a black friend so it's OK for me, a white guy, to use the N word....
Yeah for some reason I don't think that argument flies, nice try though
Because you don't like President Obama means that many Romney supporters are not racist? Please ....
May I respectfully ask how you've come to that conclusion, Ms. Jacqueline?
The blanket statement of "walking disaster" provides no more insight than the generalization over which you scolded someone else.
I would like to hear your point of view.
Mormonism's book is full of passages that explicitly say black people are cursed with dark skin for their wickedness. So, an ill-defined "Obama is a disaster" without any reasons to support the claim, as a way to vote, as a black person, for a guy who doesn't think you're fully human, is a seriously Stockholm Syndrome variety of response.
And yes, whatever your personal reasons for disliking Obama, saying that you don't like him and you're not racist does NOTHING to change the fact that an enormous number of Obama haters are very clearly racist. Especially the ones that refuse to accept he's American (a lot), or who think he's Muslim (a lot), or who think he's trying to topple the government (a lot). These are conspiracy theories that only have traction among racists and related xenophobes.
Values Voter Summit Speaker:
This "ex-terrorist" Kamal Saleem just traded RADICAL Islam for RADICAL Christianity. The only difference between the two are the God's they pray to.
Had I known I could justify any vile, self-serving opinion in the name of GOD, I would have worked harder at becoming a more devout Christian.
"Jacqueline" is probably a white male Republican troll. Avatars mean nothing.
lol, ya open the door to communication only to find most concrete mind-sets can't fit through.
They came down hard on Akin because he exposed their actual thinking and planning regarding women. They wanted to hoodwink women, and he blew their cover.
But this guy--isn't everyone anti-terrorist?
The Republican Party and its rich corporate minions (or is it the other way around?) seemingly want to punish the America people for having the temerity to elect a black man named "Barrack Hussein Obama." They wrap their political platforms in the flag and the bible, and despite the obvious contradictions to those principles (small government -- but stop gay rights and marriage, or, feed and take care of the poor and elderly -- but block a national health care plan in favor of corporate profits) while at the same time being responsible for the mess we are presently in--- and saying that they have the solutions to our problems. You see -- the American middle class still has 60% of its wealth, and that can still be wrung out somehow.
PS: Why is the name "Reinhold Reinze Prebius" OK for them, and the President's subject to mockery?
This whole thing is what concerns me most. We have been treating this as fringe and crazy just as we have with a few other growing interests of the RR. By doing so, by not shining a light on it, by ignoring it, we have a situation where the right feels comfortable placing our presidential candidates and these groups and men together. It is an acceptance and merging of ideas and goals. It all plays together: the birthers, this Obama is a Muslim, Obama is not a "legitimate President, and the really far out Obama and his administration have a secret plan. Look to the judge in Lubbock same thing worded differently.
There is a larger group than any of the press realizes that really do believe this crap and more regular citizens who have been convinced that parts of it are true and really believe there is some secret plan. I have met a few and they really believe.
That these people and the hate group that is running this "values voter" thing and our presidential candidates are all in the same room is a huge problem and it needs to be news, but it wont because the press will continue to apply the "these are just crazy ideas and no one is serious" filter on it. THAT is as much the problem as anything. The fact that Ryan and the rest were there should be big news, but it wont be and next election it will be even a bigger part of who they are.
No matter who wins this election we have a far greater problem. The right has been taken over by crazy - it is deep into what they are now.
DellaRae Green: You're are so right. I've had situations were I've met the wing-nuts, up close and personal. If you try to reason with facts, you're spinning standing still and going no where.
It's frustrating that ALL the media doesn't deem it nessecary to shine the light on the lies, hatred and most importantly, the real agenda of the GOP.
Last year we heard Sharon Engle of Navada, recommending the loons take up second amendment remedies if they didn't get a majority. In Georgia, there was a conservative radio talk show host telling his flock to "get out the guns, aim to kill and randomly shoot at thugs!" OWS college kids getting saturated with pepper spray when they voice "free speech." Add to it, the drugster, Limbo and the fox faux sickos daily doses of dung they're shoveling out.
How can the main stream media not notice the effect and increase in violence the conservatives are subjecting the country to? The war on women? Like the wild wild west where "stand your ground" laws pass for normal?
Don't know how to fix it, but a good place to start would be correcting the lies because we can't stop free speech.
Opinions, they may be like a$$ holes, everyone has one, but some are dirty and contagious.
I don't think he's nuts. I think he knows a bunch of patsies when he sees them. He'll make a mint off these people just like the rest of the cult leaders since at least the crystal cathedral entry on the scene.
Jacqueline Knight: The Republican Party is not racist? 1) Why than at the CPAC convention did they have 2 members of 2 different white supremacist groups speak? 2) Why have so many Elected Officials and prominent public figures use terms like monkey, tar baby, "skinny ghetto crackhead", uppity and Montana's U.S. District Chief Judge Richard Cebull admitted to sending a racially charged e-mail. 3) Newt Gingrich told an audience that children in poor neighborhoods have "no habits of working" nor getting paid for their endeavors "unless it's illegal." "Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works," 4) Koran-Hating Pastor Hangs Barack Obama In Effigy In Florida Church's Front Yard (pastor is white) 5) Rep. Steve King (R., Iowa) Compares Immigrants To Dogs 6) Bullet-Riddled 'Obama Outhouse' Containing Fake Birth
Certificate Displayed at Montana GOP Convention 7) White Supremacist With Ties To Neo-Nazi Groups Elected To Pennsylvania County GOP Committee 8) Tony Perkins head of the Family Research Council a speaker at this summit, has ties to David Duke (affiliated with the KKK) both personally and politically. 9) RNC Delegate Offended By Presence of ‘Mexican’ At Disney’s Epcot Center.
Gee, why would anyone say the Republican Party is racist?
Yes, but it's fine to talk to "Pimp with a limp"
Did the man in the top video attend a real school, or some Sunday School and pretended to be going to school?
Ending religion in America for me is a good thing. People will have more money in their pockets instead of supporting all these deadbeat charlatans selling them an empty bag of goods.
George Carlin - Religion is bs. - YouTube
Why is the name "Reinhold Reinze Prebius" OK for them, and the President's subject to mockery?
Simple answers to simple questions: Because it's so Aryan.
Lorr-2611132 why did you stop with the list so incomplete?
Every human being deserves compassion and respect in this world. The discrimination in these United States and across the world has been growing to the point of no return. We must stand up against all bullies, all the manipulation, and all the corruption that has been developing since the beginning of time. We all have a right to be here on earth no matter who we are, what we believe and how we choose. We must fight for our rights!
I just Googled to find any statements from the other major organized religions denouncing the hateful video that is complicit in stirring the animosity in the Middle East. Nada, zilch, zip, zero
Please refer me to critisism of anti-Christian exhibits from Islamic clerics. Please don't use religion as a pretext for violence. There are too many other dynamics going on in the Middle East to point to a video hardly no one has seen. High unemployment, no economy, no experience with our style of democracy, etc.
Religious leaders across the board stood together to condemn that disgusting video and the small percentage of protesters citing it as rational for violence. They also tried to express the rights and lines of the 1st Amendment.
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=rh7fl7cab&v=001X6jYJeFlGfKc82g7lQ-CfjyRnulB8bnv5YHgZXw8wkL3XnuMMfo9zOgkcob-ecesPzWMyvtqi26iguHJqv9_RzI8Cm57Iu8DV3N9CO3gGkIsOQIb_PRJ6A%3D%3D
I meant limits of the 1st Amendment. My edit was delayed.
The interfaith statements led by the ISNA preceded the news that extremist militants were behind the murders of our Ambassador Stevens, our three American public servants, and Libya's ten security guards.
A wise man once said, "you can't argue with crazy".
Or "Against stupidity, the Gods themselves strive in vain"
The "Value Voters Summit" is the new Monty Python movie.
Not really, if the Republican presidential candidate AND his VP both took the stage with a former terrorist at this summit. A criminal turned religious leader? Who'da thunk it.
What does values mean now, anyway? It's as vague a term, as empty a husk as all the rest of Mitt's talking points and "policies".
How do Republicans continue to live off tomorrow's insubstantial hypothetical future predictions instead of using yesterdays evidence and records to know if their nominee will demonstrate their values? Do we not dare hold our elected officials to honest standards because then we too will be expected to live by those same standards?
Chuck Colson? (for example)
Here's a hint: Santorum says "We will never have the elite, smart people on our side..." (video is 1:24, no autoplay, hosted at rightwingwatch)
Vulture/Voucher 2012
Proving Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!
;-)
Thanks for the link.
a few more stories from this week concerning the intersection of religion and politics
fla to vote on government funds for religious use amendment
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Florida_Religious_Freedom%2c_Amendment_8_%282012%29
missouri overrides veto; keeps employer religious healthcare exemption
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/09/13/168289/missouri-lawmakers-override-gov.html#storylink=cpy
hobby lobby chain sues over birth control mandate
http://newsok.com/hobby-lobby-challenges-federal-mandate-to-provide-morning-after-pills-to-employees/article/3709107#ixzz26TWat9j1
one more
The Virginia Board of Health on Friday voted 13-2 to adopt new regulations for the state’s abortion clinics, reversing a decision in June that would have exempted existing facilities from rules that opponents claim could force a majority of the 20 clinics to close.
The board also rejected several amendments that would have either grandfathered existing clinics into compliance under the new rules or provided them more leeway, also on 13-2 votes.
Well, not shopping at the world's worst "hobby shop" won't be any great loss, but they go on the list of other businesses where I don't knowingly give my money to The Enemy.
Do the business have to have some religious designation like Catholic Charities or does the owner (or CEO or a person on the Board of Directors) just claim some religious bent like Chick-Fil-A?
Just another tool for Big Business, religion, where corporations use the religious angle to save their employees from the devil, aka: save money on their health care costs.
Ryans speech was a turd. 100% Obama bashing, with zero percent policy or specifics. Even a craven wingnut could comprehend that, so the takeaway must be that these folks are not interested in the truth. They only gravitate to the personality, so the creepy Paul Ryan that all of us can clearly see as a con man is their hero. The sad part is that these people seem willing to trade the Medicare of their children for the promise of taking away womens rights and war.
Not just willing, but eager in an entirely unwholesome way.
"these folks are not interested in the truth."
Was there ever any doubt? One of my relatives is among this group and anything that contradicts their dogma is a "liberal talking point."
The numbers don't add up in Romney's budget - liberal talking point
Mitt's time line for the attack on the embassies is false - liberal talking point
No one can find a video of Obama actually saying that people didn't build their own businesses - liberal talking point
ad nauseum
sorry dkm.
I wonder what it's like to be so easily assured of one's opinion?
I also marvel that in this free country, half of it's citizens are repeatedly told we have zero credibility by the other half, based on their bazaar idea of what credible is.
Sorry, Coffee, but I'm not "easily assured" of what your opinion is, therefore cannot possibly evaluate your "credibility".
Could you clarify which of dkm's points you are questioning?
dkm--
"Was there ever any doubt? One of my relatives is among this group and anything that contradicts their dogma is a "liberal talking point."
I have the same problem with members of my family. In their view the only place to get reliable news is from FOX (despite surveys that say their viewers are the most misinformed). Any other source of balanced information that does not take up the conservative talking points is dismissed as "liberal bias".
It's awfully convenient for them, don't you think? No research required. If the facts are a problem -- attack the source.
Rereading my post shows I wasn't clear enough, Not Dave.
I was actually sympathizing with dkm on the "liberal talking points", that the person/s uttering those words were so assured of their opinions.
Walks-upright @ #7.1 stated it with the élan I only wish I had mustered.
i've been 'disconcerted' about this since the moment the gipper threw his arms around the right wing loonies in 1980. you can almost date the g.o.p.'s descent into this manmade hell to the minute. for thirty plus years i've been wondering when they would come to their senses. for the last twelve years, i've been worrying more about 'if' than 'when'. now i'm to the point i've accepted both as hopeless. the fundamentalists own the republican party. i predict that their next nominee will be one who, in their eyes, bears no defect at all (no mormon, no catholic, no presbyterian). he'll be strictly hard core.
I am just guessing, but if one believes that
Then, this is just an attempt to "heal" the populist-taxcutter cleavage ... leaving the conservatives out. Ryan already bridges the populist-taxcutter groups pretty well, and is setting himself up for 2016.
You're assuming there is any GOP left by 2016. Right now I see 3 incompatable factions: Big Business wants deregulation but lucrative gov't contracts to exploit; Tea Party no government freedom to do as they please; and Religious Fundies who want a Big Brother government that regulates our private life.
I see the divide in our local House race. We're purple and it's 50% Dem but the GOP split 25% to moderate RINO to 24% Tea Bagger. Now the TB is talking about not voting in the race at all or voting for the Dem who is well respected even by many who don't agree with her.
It's hard to argue with crazy.
at the end of a horrible week of religious news, a lighter note..."the king is dead, but he's not forgotten...."
Reuters -- A Bible which once belonged to Elvis Presley and contains his handwritten notes and thoughts has sold for $94,600 (59,000 pounds) at an auction in England, the auction house said.
The Bible, given to the singer on his first Christmas at his home in Graceland in 1957, was bought by an American man based in Britain, Omega Auctions said on its website.
The religious book, used by Presley until his death on Aug. 16, 1977, was expected to fetch around 25,000 pounds but went for more than double its value.
http://entertainment.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/10/13776063-elvis-presleys-personal-bible-sells-for-94000-at-auction?lite
When a bolt of lightening comes out of the sky and strikes lying republicans dead, I will sleep better at night.
God had a chance in Tampa but Pat Roberson outwitted Him.
Mike said: "bolt of lightening"
Last night when HuffPo headline said "Struck Down" above a pic of Walker with his mouth wide open; my first thought was that he had been struck by lightning.
Was kind of weird to be disappointed, yet happy because his anti-union law was found unconstitutional.
Yes, Ninz. Hurricanes do generate bolts of lightening along with the accompanying thunder, tornadoes, hail and torrential rain, and of course those moderate breezes that'll blow the shards of a beach house inland. It would have been the perfect cover.
The insanity is distressing, especially as it's becoming accepted and entrenched in public policy. But it's the illogic of their arguments - that "black is white" kind of double-speak - that makes ME crazy. It is not the Roe v. Wade PRECEDENT that leads to Sharia law; it is precisely the opposite - it's the attacks on Roe, and on women's rights and autonomy, that suggest Sharia law. Right-wing zealots who seek to control women's bodies and their healthcare decisions and options - and seek to enshrine their religious beliefs into law and public policy - are absolutely no different than those who impose Sharia law elsewhere.
There is help for you. You are not crazy but at risk. Read The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science - and Reality by Chris Mooney. Then adapt to this information.
That is a good one, Lenny. Here's another (and, by coincidence, I was just recommending it elsewhere on the vine this morning).
One of the best, and I think most explanatory, works on the subject was published about six years ago, written by someone who had more up-close-and-personal experience with the phenomenon than most of us (in the Nixon Administration!) - John Dean:
Conservatives Without Conscience
The book takes a fascinating look at some of the research that's been done on the "authoritarian mindset". He was driven to write it by his own increasing frustration and astonishment at the behavior and rhetoric of the right-wing, which had only grown more extreme since the time of his own involvement in national politics. It's not without its flaws, but I think it has a lot of explanatory power on this subject. Well worth a read if you haven't yet.
Vulture/Voucher 2012
Proving Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!
;-)
Absolutely. The difference between the fundamentalist christianist agenda and the fundamentalist jihadi Sharia agenda is so small you couldn't stick a razor blade between them. I shake my head when I read that the christianists have passed another law outlawing Sharia law because all they're doing is shooting themselves in the foot. Since they can't Constitutionally say "Sharia", they have to word it in such a way that it includes their own agenda. It's the same phenomenon as when the republican Congress criticizes Obama for "eliminating the work requirement for welfare" and then they go and pass a law that actually eliminates the work requirement for welfare.
The nouns Christian, Jew, Moslem, Hindu, are big words that represent big ideas. When you put "fundamentalist" in front of them, they become adjectives describing the color of the horse manure. All fundamentalists are alike: authoritarian, patriarchal, wishing to impose their rule on everyone else. Fundamentalism is just fascism carrying a prayer rug and a cross and wearing a yarmulke.
Perfect!
It IS distressing. Crazy is the new normal for the right and look at what has become of the rest of us. Liberals will be voting in essentially a republican. He thumps his chest like one, the drones and patriot act and worse, all the God speak in every speech, even the economics is all republican and I am desperate to elect him because crazy is the only other option. That is the weirdest feeling. The voice of the left has been essentially shut down and somehow that is okay.
My son is distressed that every day I am on a new rant about some new news about the right. It's like they are shoving it all out there in our face - "Ha! Whatcha gonna do 'bout this." The few "normal" republicans I know are just going to sit out this election, not vote to stop it, just sit it out. They are not interested in fixing the problems of the right, but more just waiting it out. By doing this they have allowed it to fester and grow and in my mind at least become an issue of real national security, personal liberty, and basic morality. If they wont fight for that because they are republican and not democrat, what really can be done? We just do this again and again and again?
When do we just give in and let them bring it all down?
This republican party is pure poison and it leads the downfall of what is good about America. Rise up Americans and say no to this evil party!
So now you have a man who proclaims himself a terrorist, but is secretly a longtime American Christian, pushing the narrative that the president secretly is a terrorist who only claims to be American and Christian.
The conspiracy theory snake is eating its own tail.
I just thought I'd share a video that touches on god and one of Maddow's favorite topics, prohibition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=owfQomdMEqM
Fascinating video - Gabrielle, thanks! Sister Aimee's facial expressions as she spoke reminded me vividly of Sarah Palin, for some reason...
Vulture/Voucher 2012
Proving Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!
;-)
"Think of how stupid the average person is and realize half of them are stupider than that" George Carlin
The grand irony? The speakers on the speaker list seemingly have not a clue they are the ones who are truly dangerous to a free and liberty-minded people!
Crazy paranoia hath no sense of reason as to just what the 1st Amendment is about! So, VVS speakers lash out at those they think don't deserve such a right, while cowering in fear and whiny complaint that everyone who opposes their grand view is against them, and by extension, against their beloved America!
God, I wish Frank Zappa were alive to pen parody on these fools! -Kevo
People should be "disconcerted" with Mr. Saleem or whatever name he goes by this week, but it's long overdue that people should be "disconcerted" with all the hateful rhetoric coming from religion. They are not promoting the teachings of Jesus or God, but hate. That the people we elect are pandering and promoting this religious hate and even making laws to support it should be disconcerting to everyone.
These religious manipulators drive big cars, ride in limos, live in mansions, in more than one area, have corporate jets, and everything else the elite rich have. Yet the sheep give them their money while taking away money for their own homes or their own food to keep these liar preachers in riches. Then they have the nerve to tell these same idiots that they need to donate more for their prayers to help them. AND they give more!
These bible thumpers make me sick and the people that support them make me sick.
I think you are in good company here, Phenner. All of us should feel fortunate that we can view this arena of snakes from the outside.
Jim Jones and Marshall Applewhite didn't die alone. For every big nut selling a new snake oil, there's a sad reckoning of little nuts buying it.
It's called Dominionism. Wealth is proof of Gawd's favor. Never mind that camel/ eye-of-needle stuff, the richer you are, the more respect you deserve, because obviously you must have the Lawd's favor. It's very self-serving and has more than a touch of that deal-with-the-devil flavor.
Have any of you lived in the Middle East...and not as a reporter....their responses to reporters are untruthful....when you live there and get to know the heart of the people you then understand that from infancy they are taught that America is the great Satan and Israel the little Satan. Those that don't are in a minority. Are they jealots? Yes. The Koran teaches that is acceptable to lie and deceive the infidel, of which, the West is in their eyes. People laugh at the Egyptians using stones as a defense. This is culture that goes back 3000 years. They use stones to throw at and kill women. Obama knows this and he supports them anyway. Talk about War on Women.
Jealots? That's a new one. A jealous zealot? Hm, interesting. Although quite presumptuous because you don't actually know if people are jealous or if they are just zealots. You just assume one or the other. Kind've funny since you're playing the my-god-is-better-than-your-god game. Guess that makes you a jealot too?
Many cultures go back 3000 years or more years (actually Egypt is the one of the oldest civilizations known to man- goes back way more than 3000 years, but ya know) I don't know what this has to do with stone throwing?
And no, sorry, but most Arabs don't hate America and neither do most Muslims. There are, however, some who do hate America. And those are mostly the reactionary right wing. The same crazy uncles that we have to deal with here- who bomb abortion clinics and who deny women sovereignty over their own individual being- are the same crazy uncles we have to deal with there. You just happen to fixate on that one portion because they are the ones who affront what you know. The remainder are just regular people and so they fade from view. This is known as selective reasoning.They also use stones to throw at and kill men, but I don't hear you complaining? See how that selective reasoning works.
The War On Women is a title the right earns from it's anti-woman policies. If the right doesn't like this title then the right needs to change it's policies. This is not rocket science. It is not a messaging problem that the right has it is a policy problem- until the right understands this the War on Women will continue. Now if you're objection is that you think "war" is too hyperbolic OK I can agree with you on that. But that still doesn't change the anti-woman nature of the policies being proposed and passed by Republicans.
Funny. Your description of me, someone who lives in a Moslem society not as a reporter, fits, but then you go and make statements about the locals being taught from infancy that America is the great Satan and all the rest of it that are entirely untrue. Where did you find your information? It sounds like something you pulled out of your distal digestive orifice.
Always nice to have one of you morons come along with your public celebration of braindead ignorance and show us how stupid stupid has to be to be one of you asswipe scum.
Rufus-
There are many instances of a commandment to deceive or mislead in the Old Testament as well. The rest of your post is over-generalization, falsehoods or a combination of the two.
wow! Actually, I did live in the Middle East in the 80's. In Egypt to be exact. I didn't find they hated Americans at all. In fact, they were extremely interested in the United States, learned English so one day they could go there and I was surrounded everywhere I went. Did YOU ever live there?
Perhaps the Mad-lib game of "All [insert random ethnic group] people are [insert random insult]." doesn't really help us to understand anyone. You can choose to not play.
In other This Week In God news from the summit:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/rick-santorum-says-smart-people-will-never-be-on
Santorum on smart people: Making stupidity desirable.
This is interesting: UN Resolution 1618, which Saleem claims Secretary Clinton will use to have "churches and synagogues shut down" in the U.S., was praised by Pat Robertson"s CBN network last year for protecting Christian minorities in Muslim nations:
The U.N. resolution protects individuals rather than a particular religion and is viewed as an initial step against archaic blasphemy laws like Pakistan’s 295, which prohibits the free speech rights of citizens to criticize Islam, Mohammed, or the Koran. Pakistan's 295 was used against Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi, who is still confined to a prison cell near Faisalabad and faces execution for defending her faith to Muslim co-workers more than two years ago.
source: #mce_temp_url#
I just wonder.....I get that these people seek to scare and manipulate voters but do these crazy people really believe their own lunacy? Do they ever look in the mirror and say gee you know...this is perhaps a little insane right?
No. They do not ask themselves that. What you are hearing is what they think. These sort of people used to be just the occasional cranks 30 years ago. Now they make up most of the Republican party.
We're in deep shhit.
The leaders (like Ralph Reed, Gary Bauer, Tony Perkins) don't believe it. Their followers do. The leaders count on the followers never asking questions. This would be called questioning or challenging authority, which is a big no-no in fundamentalist sects.
I'm not convinced they don't believe it. These cartoons are f cked up.
Disgusted- I've seen some of these guys up close, and can tell you that it's all means to an end for them.
I'd like to know how he keeps a straight face during his speech. I'd start to laugh.
I've got my Value-voter coupons ready! Wow, Hillary and NATO are up to something even more nefarious than "gitting are guns"!
-Staying tuned!! (/snark)
Oh yeah, in case you didn't notice; "Religion poisons everything"..
Is it this site or the computer? I can hardly hear this without headphones.
Meditate. God lives within you as you.