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Role reversal. It’s a fantastic way to check if a situation is horribly wrong. A brilliant example of this is found about 3 minutes in on this pretty great video. It follows the point I made in a previous post, but in a new, wonderfully hilarious way. Watch, laugh, be better equipped to deal with anti-choicers.
A second musical interlude on one Friday? This one not from Arb? Something special and wonderful must be happening!
If you’re thinking something along these lines, you’ve never been more right in your life. Welcome friends to my very first musical interlude post. Why now? Because it’s the holiday season and you deserve a little extra love. Why me? Because I have a knack for finding those extra special somethings you just don’t see everyday and I’ve found an absolute gem for you today.
Leonard Solomon is a musical genius and craftsman extraordinaire. He has invented some marvellous instruments and arranged numerous pieces to fit his wondrous creations. Here for you now, Johannes Brahms’ Hungarian Dance #5 on the Majestic Bellowphone.
Religiously deluded, bigoted, right-wingnuts say the darndest things. Just the other day, Manitoban PC leader Brian Pallister wished the very best to “all you infidel atheists out there”.
Say again?
“All you infidel atheists”
He didn’t say that.
He really did. On camera. Check the vid.
Pretty amazing, right? But it gets even better. This video spurred an understandably unfavourable response from the secular community. Pallister did have some defenders though. They suggested that it was a joke, albeit in bad taste. Damn liberal media sheep, they whine that the poor conservatives are too uptight, but as soon as one delivers a little joke, they get all offended. Except that it wasn’t a joke – not that it would actually excuse this if it was.
Later, in a response to the fallout of his holiday greeting, Pallister defended his wording by stating that, according to the dictionary, ‘infidel’ means ‘non-believer’. He was just being inclusive. “I’m always disappointed when people misrepresent the meaning of the words. What I was trying to do there is include everyone in my best wishes over the holidays” Riiiiiiiight. Let’s explore why this is total bullshit.
First, no one identifies as an ‘infidel’. Quite a few non-believers don’t even identify as an ‘atheist’. I mean, sure, I’m also a non-stamp-collector, but it has no inherent meaning to me. However, if people were being ostracized, abused, discriminated against, and even killed because they didn’t collect stamps, I’d have to speak up as a non-stamp-collector too. So saying that he was trying to include ‘infidels’ when the only people who think the term means anything are non-infidels, is beyond suspicious. It is a blatant affirmation of the religious ‘us vs. them’ mentality.
Second, whereas ‘atheist’ is purely descriptive – absence of theism, ‘infidel’ is riddled with negative overtones. Sure one of the definitions listed in the dictionary is simply ‘one who doesn’t believe’, but dictionaries aren’t known for deep explorations into connotation or social context. ‘Infidel’ is the name that members of an in-group call members of the out-group. It is a term meant to belittle, demean, and undervalue. An atheist is a non believer, period. An infidel is a non believer, understood as an unworthy subhuman piece of filth. Pallister’s comment is analogous to someone attempting to be “racially inclusive” by using the word ‘nigger’ then defending the slur by saying that it just means ‘people with dark skin’. No, it’s offensive, divisive, and hateful, I don’t care how happy the surrounding message is. And Pallister knows it.
If he really thought ‘atheist’ and ‘infidel’ were as synonymous as he claims, then there would be no reason to use both words. Pallister’s defence is that all he meant to say was ‘non-believing non-believers’. There is no justification for such a redundancy. The negative hateful baggage is jammed right into the word ‘infidel’ and it is the only reason for Pallister to have used it. I am willing to concede that it may not have been a conscious decision, not that it would be a redeeming admission. It would mean that his religious elitism is so ingrained that he automatically demeans the irreligious without thinking about it.
If he was just some guy, Pallister’s words would just make him an asshole in need of good chewing out. But the standards for our elected officials is higher than that. Especially in a country that thankfully separates church and state, such a slur should be met with much harsher repercussions. Manitobans, please see too it he is not re-elected. Manitoban conservatives, get him evicted from your party. If you ever want to be in power in Manitoba again, step 1 would be to distance yourselves from ignorant jackasses like Brian Pallister.
[ed. Trigger Warning for child abuse.]
Christianity doesn’t have a clue what love is. It starts by fucking up the notion beyond all recognition right off the bat. God’s “love” is so great that if you swear eternal obedience and submission, he won’t torture you until the end of time, even though he knows full well you deserve it, you despicable mortal you. This ultimate perversion of love makes it possible for christians to say any atrocious action could be done “out of love”.
At it’s mildest, you have your run-of-the-mill bigots and misogynists, smiling sweetly as vile hatred pours out of their mouths. Middle of the road, we get people like the West Borrow Baptists who don’t bother with the duplicity of smiling or making the vitriol sound nice. They tell people flat out they deserve to burn and suffer endlessly in hell. Out of love, of course. The last step is to go beyond words to express christian “love” and demonstrate it physically, to the point murder if need be.
‘To Train Up a Child’ is a horrendously vile book, authored by a loathsome duo of wretches that the world would be better off without. That bears demands repeating. Michael and Debi Pearl, the repugnant writers of this appalling book, should not exist; the utter obliteration of their influence on our society would be an immeasurable boon. The teachings in their book, which include such deplorable tidbits like telling parents to starve and beat their children to break them into obedience, has resulted in yet another child’s murder.
In a story that caused a nauseating sense of deja-vu, another set of parents have been convicted of murder. The parents, looking to their faith for guidance on how to raise their children, took to heart the teachings of Michael and Debi Pearl and their ‘No Greater Joy’ ministry. As a result, 13 year old Hana Williams died after three years of abuse.
Malnutrition, hypothermia, severe beatings, all part of the program that has lead to at least three cases of parents killing a child while adhering to the advice from the Pearls. I say ‘at least’ as that’s how many I’ve read about. I can only imagine the actual number of horror stories that have resulted from the malicious filth spread by these “loving” christians.
Is it a fringe element, just a few nutcases following a pair of backyard loons? Nope. The Pearls run a very successful ministry, bringing in an estimated $1.7 million a year. They are also the tip of the iceberg. Evangelicals adopting foreign children in order to ‘save their souls’ are an infestation of child abuse and neglect. The christian ‘spare the rod’ doctrine is as mainstream as it can get and it’s killing kids.
Christianity is vile, its idea of love is deplorable, and its witless followers are a threat to the innocent. Because monstrous brutality for your tyrannical “god” isn’t just old testament stuff, as many apologists would have you believe. It is born-again and murdering children for the glory of jebus!
Fuck.
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A frequent dodge to avoid actually thinking about the issue criticism I have to deal with is that, as an anti-theist, I unfairly target Christianity and/or Islam. Why don’t I go around completely dismantling the vile B.S of other religions? Are their supernatural beliefs not just as irrational? Yes. Are their woo filled tenets not just as useless for understanding the reality which we inhabit? Yes. Is their presence not just as harmful to our society? No, no it isn’t.
And let me explain why.
We don’t have Zeus worshippers powerfully lobbying for science classes to ‘teach the controversy’ about the origin of lightning bolts. We don’t have Anubis acolytes “honour” killing wives and children. Christianity and Islam deserve every ounce of disrespect, ridicule, loathing we can throw at them because of the horrendous effects they have on individuals and society as a whole. I’ve always maintained that should any other ludicrous belief system result in such disastrous transgressions, I would criticize them with the same level of harshness. It wasn’t a challenge to be accepted, but here we are.
Catholicism, it turns out, does not have a monopoly on systematic child rape. Much less in the public eye, hiding under-the-radar, Judaism has its own truly awful institutionalized sexual abuse problem. Much like the worst stories from the Catholics, the inhuman perpetrators are shielded and go uncharged, people who speak out are severely punished, and kids are left to the predators. As reported in this article, Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg walked in on one such rape in a mikvah, a Jewish bath. When he tried to stop it, the rapist beat the protesting rabbi with a back scrubber for interrupting him.
Since then, Rosenberg has gone on to start up support systems for abused children and has spoken out against the rampant sexual abuse. For his efforts in trying to protect children, he receives death threats, is slandered in Hebrew newspapers, and is turned away from synagogues. He’s also had a cup of bleach thrown in his face.
Other inhuman lowlights mentioned in the article include:
- Stat: 50% or more of young males in Brooklyn’s massive Hasidic community have suffered from sexual abuse at the hands of their religious elders.
- Those speaking out against the problem face complete ruination
- Mothers who try to protect their children have them taken away
- Parents are afraid to complain to authorities on behalf of their children
- One of the worst offending Rabbis forced children to eat fecal matter in order to “purify” them
I can’t even process how a community can protect the vile scum that is raping their children while attacking the one of their number who’s trying to stand up for those kids. Once again, religion’s capacity to propagate incomprehensible evil in the world blows my mind. So fuck religious tolerance; fuck christianity, islam, AND judaism; fuck apologists defending rapists, but in the name of all that is good,
STOP FUCKING CHILDREN!
It’s a sad day friends. I was all primed to deliver a hilarious disservice, mocking some religious lunacy that rivals e-meters, magic underwear, and sin-absorbing chickens. As I researched further, however, the humour faded rapidly to be replaced with revulsion and dismay. It all started earlier this week when I came upon this article. Teen exorcists with karate black-belts “kicking some demon butt” (yes, that’s an actual quote) across America are going to fight Satan in the UK. The article promised an hour long program about it later in the week on BBC Three, so I went to the BBC website for the show. It turns out only UK residents are allowed to watch it online, but the site did have three short clips for me to check out. This one showing the young ladies sharing their thoughts on Harry Potter is particularly revealing.
That is some kind of ridiculous, but my desire to mock was already quickly falling away. They are too young and too earnest. They seemed like they could be alumni from the hideous Jesus Camp. With apprehension, I tried to locate the program elsewhere on the web where I might view it. I couldn’t find the BBC program, but instead I found another documentary released a month ago. This one followed the exorcising trio to the Ukraine. Brace yourselves, ‘Disturbing Content’ doesn’t begin to cover it.
The level of creepy evil housed in that Reverend Bob is off the charts. He’s terrifying. I feel bad for those young women he’s brainwashed so he can use them for his personal gain. I feel much worse for the audiences they exploit . Most of all, I feel an overwhelming repugnance and disgust for Bob Larson.
We live in an age of innovation. Using the great scientific advances of previous generations and implementing them in new and creative ways is huge part of our progress. No longer burdened by what we can do (mostly), the question for most fields now is how we can do it better. Can we do it faster? Can we do it cheaper? Can we do it greener? Can we do it prettier? Can we do it easier?
In these pursuits we have seen some phenomenal advances. Urban transportation has seen cars go from obnoxiously loud, disgustingly dirty, and horribly dangerous automobiles for the social elites to quick, small, light, potentially electric cars for most families, some having two or three vehicles. Computers have gone from hand cranked, room-sized bean counters to tiny tera-byte twirling do-almost-anything devices. Body armour has gone from heavy, ill-fitting, steel barrels to light-weight, bullet absorbing liquid kevlar vests. Cast iron stoves to electric grills. Horse-drawn ploughs to John Deeres. Muskets to laser-sighted assault rifles. Absolutely everything is being made with advanced materials to get the most out of just the right resources. All these technological wonders flashed through my head as I waited in yet another traffic standstill due to construction. Why are roads still made of asphalt?
Asphalt roads began being made in the early 1800’s (even before the first combustion engine cars hit the streets) and all I can find, as far as research and advancement goes, are efforts to make asphalt cheaper and faster to produce. That’s it. No new materials for roads. No ideas for the super draining, no-slip driving surface. No new compound that will last more than a year before cracking and developing potholes. Nothing. Why the hell not? Read the rest of this entry »
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