Critisize Israel, I Dare You!

This cartoon is sparking many claims of antisemitism according to The Raw Story.

For far too long anyone who criticizes Israel is demonized as an antisemitic asshole.  If some people have trouble separating Israel’s politics with Israel’s religion maybe that is because so does Israel.  If there are things in this world that are beyond criticism than we have a very serious problem.  Unquestioned support of anything is a dangerous thing and has the power to erode the moral fiber of any civilization.  Just ask the Nazis that were ‘just following orders’. 

And no, this post does not mean I’m antisemitic.

Quiverfull

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD:
and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man;
so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:
they shall not be ashamed,
but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

Psalm 127:3-5 (KJV)

Morning Edition had a piecetoday about the Quiverfull movement in which Christian families keep having children until God tells them to stop (no word yet on that ever happening). 

Why would you have so many children that you can only afford to live in squaler?  God – obviously.

If you’re up for a laugh I recomend visiting Quiverfull.com:

We exalt Jesus Christ as Lord, and acknowledge His headship in all areas of our lives, including fertility. We exist to serve those believers who trust the Lord for family size, and to answer the questions of those seeking truth in this critical area of marriage.

It seems that these people take things from the bible that speak of children way too seriously.  Which makes me wonder what they do when they come across passages like this one:

  When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are.  If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again.  But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her.  And if the slave girl’s owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter.  If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife.  If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment.   (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)

Actually, that might not be a bad money making scheme – and if ever prosecuted you could just say it was all religious observance.  Have a lot of children so that you can sell the daughters as sex slaves!  It’s bible-condoned!

Expelled – Ben Stein’s Pro Creationist “Documentary”

So I got Expelled – No Intelligence Allowed from Netflix.  I’m watching it as I write this.  The beginning is what you would expect, a long and tedious trek to find professors who have been shunned for expressing support of intelligent design.  A lot of ignorance about what evolution actually is, and a lot of pointing out that ID has good points (without ever actually making them so we can judge for ourselves how good they are).  But the best part so far is the long bit about Nazi Germany and eugenics.  What place do the Nazis have in this “documentary”?  Evidently the Nazis became Nazis because they were Darwinists.  Stein also manages to imply that Planned Parenthood is an organization guided by the principles of eugenics!

Stein spends a lot of time talking about how it isn’t the American way to suppress a viewpoint – we are the land of freedom and inclusiveness.  What he never does is make an argument of why we should listen to ID.  What is the evidence?  He says it is just as valid but never bothers to show us why.

And that is because its a bunch of bullshit.

Pope Hates Africans – Wants them to DIE!

From the AFP:

Benedict told reporters Tuesday aboard the plane taking him to Cameroon that AIDS was a tragedy “that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems.”

The solution lies in a “spiritual and human awakening” and “friendship for those who suffer,” he said on his first trip to Africa.

In response, Spain is pledging 1 million condoms for those countries worst hit by the AIDS epidemic.  So thank you, Spain . . . but can’t you spare a few more than that?

In any case, only have unprotected sex with the pope, because apparently his condoms are lubed with AIDS.

Two people that could have been avoided if their parents had only used a condom.

New Mexico Bans Death Penalty

From the Huffinton Post:

SANTA FE, N.M. — Gov. Bill Richardson signed legislation Wednesday repealing New Mexico’s death penalty, making it the second state to ban executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

There was a time when I was a supporter of the death penalty.  But now we must realize that the death penalty is only viable when it is used by an infallible system.  No system will ever be infallible.

I’m also not convinced anymore that the death penalty is moral even within our theoretical perfect justice system.  I believe in rehabilitation instead of punishment.  Surely a society is judged by how it treats the worst of itself – and mayhaps we should keep that in mind.

United States Increasingly Claiming ‘No Religion’

From the Huffington Post:

A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that . . . the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all.

Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 14.2 percent in 2001 and 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey.

Secularism, is it the next big thing?  What do you think?

Michelle Obama, She’s so Dreamy

Kate’s commentary on

Commentary: My crush on Michelle Obama

 

 

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/03/cafferty.first.lady/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

NEW YORK (CNN) — I think I am developing a crush on America’s first lady. Michelle Obama is more compelling than her husband. He’s good, but she’s utterly fascinating.

Mrs. Obama has blown away the stale air in a White House musty from eight years of the Bushes. It’s like the sun came out and a fresh spring breeze began wafting through the open windows.

It’s the people’s house, and Michelle Obama totally gets it. So much so that she has taken to inviting people in from the streets to see her home. Nice touch — one completely lacking in her recent predecessors. Wow, the little lady sure is good at welcoming her husband at the front door with his slippers and pipe. She’s a regular Susie Homemaker

Watch her when she visits a local school and you see the warmth and affection she instantly triggers in people. Kids are pretty much totally honest with very good BS-detectors. If they sense you’re a phony, forget it. But around the first lady, they want to hug her and laugh with her and tell her stories. She is good with children, as all REAL women are. Not like that bitch Hillary, who liked to kick kids in the face.

You can see the same qualities these kids recognize in her daughters. She is the consummate mother as evidenced by the poised, polite smiling children she and her husband are raising. I have four daughters, and trust me — they don’t turn out like the Obama children without devoted parents.

New to the Washington neighborhood, Michelle Obama has taken it upon herself to go around and introduce herself to the people in the various agencies of government. When’s the last time a first lady did that? I don’t ever remember it before. And during her visits she listens rather than lectures. And people respond to her. Finally, a woman who just listens and doesn’t go around TALKING all the time. It’s about time!

She was raised on the south side of Chicago by blue-collar parents. She went to Princeton University, and Harvard Law School. But in many ways she’s still a kid from the south side of Chicago, and that’s what makes her special. She knows exactly who she is. Is this paragraph actually celebrating the fact that she won’t get uppity ‘casue she “knows where she came from”? Isn’t this nearly the exact language used by racists to celebrate the house servant?

The Obamas bring a humanity and humility to their tasks which sets them far apart from the run-of-the mill phonies who populate Washington. It’s exactly what the doctor ordered for this wounded nation.

Michelle Obama’s unassuming, but dead-on, sense of style has the fashion press gushing all over itself. And she is pretty. Good thing, ’cause being nice and being pretty is what being a woman is all about.

Her arms are becoming the stuff of legend. Who appears sleeveless on the cover of Vogue, let alone in front of a joint session of Congress while her husband delivers one of the most important speeches of his life? And the reviews were rave. REALLY?!? You are proud of her because she doesn’t wear sleeves? What about her career, her education, her opinions? She sure as hell isn’t showing any of that, but you’re happy because she is showing her arms? WTF!?!?!?!

Cindi Leive, the editor of Glamour magazine gushed, “Oh my god! The first lady has bare arms in Congress in February at night!” If she keeps it up, Seventh Avenue will soon stop making women’s clothes with sleeves.

Ok, I admit it. When it comes to the first lady, I’m smitten.

Beyond the Gates – Rwanda Genocide at its Finest

Last weekend I received the film Beyond the Gates from Netflix.  I watched, I laughed, I cried.  Except for the laughed part.  Based on a true story this film was an amazing eye opener.  No matter how much you know about Rwanda in 1995, what happened there is something you can never really get your mind around.  I highly recomend this film as both a history lesson and a study of what people are capable of.  I don’t know how I missed it when it came out to theatres, but I’m glad that I didn’t miss it on DVD.

Fighting the Good Fight – Prop 8

From the Wall Street Journal:

This week, California’s gay-marriage battle returns to the national spotlight.

The state’s Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments Thursday on whether an amendment passed by voters in November banning gay marriage should stand. . .

The National Center for Lesbian rights, and other gay-rights groups, immediately petitioned the Supreme Court to invalidate the law, arguing voters can’t take away what they say is an essential right. That constitutes a revision, not an amendment, to the state’s constitution, gay-marriage advocates argue.

I find this an interesting argument.  On one hand the voters of California voted for prop 8.  On the other hand, do the voters even have the power to write bigotry into the constitution via an amendment?

I hope that the challenge to prop eight succeeds – not because i know so much about California’s constitution that I can make the final call on the subject, but because regardless of everything else it is the right thing to do.  If someone can find a way to invalidate it, then so be it.  I won’t listen to arguments about fairness from the other side – I’m only interested in changing the social atmosphere in what is supposedly the most advanced civilization on earth, from one of hatred to one of acceptance.