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Poking wasps nests with chopsticks seems to be the motive behind much of US foreign policy. The cesspool that is Afghanistan needs only a couple of gentle stirs to spray its fetid lunacy and violence on everything and everyone. Case in point, burning paper turns the people bug-frack crazy:
“Afghan officials say at least two demonstrators have been killed in northern Afghanistan as protests over last week’s burning of Qur’ans turned violent.
It marked the sixth day of deadly protests over the burning of Qur’ans and other religious materials at a U.S. base. The White House has called the incident a mistake and apologized to the Afghan government but demonstrations have continued.”
The US relationship with Afghanistan seems to be suffering multiple personality disorder. Drone attacks that butcher civilians get little mention, but burning the Koran gets an official apology? It makes no sense. You don’t do PR in an occupied country, you just get the job done because by now any notion of good intent or nation building is long gone. All that remains is the national interest, the more discretely it is handled the better.
“The administrator of Iman Sahib district in Kunduz province says Sunday’s protest turned violent as demonstrators tried to enter the district’s largest city. He says people in the crowd fired on police and threw grenades at a U.S. base nearby. NATO said initial reports indicated no international service members were killed.”
Ignorant people with access to small arms and explosives, how could anything go wrong?
“A gunman killed two U.S. military advisers with shots to the back of the head Saturday inside a heavily guarded ministry building in Kabul, and NATO ordered military workers out of Afghan ministries as protests raged for a fifth day over the burning of Qur’ans at a U.S. army base.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack at the Interior Ministry, saying it was retaliation for the Qur’an burnings, after the two U.S. servicemen — a lieutenant-colonel and a major — were found dead on their office floor, Afghan and western officials said.”
Whoops. Underestimating the resolve of your enemy is always a recipe for trouble. U.S/NATO forces will be forced to reevaluate their security procedures after this incident.
“The two American service members were found by another foreigner who went into the room, which is only accessible by people who know the correct numerical combination, according to the Afghan official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose details about the shootings.
They were shot in the back of the head, according to Western officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the information. Authorities were poring over security camera video for clues, the Afghan official said.”
I wonder if the American Administration is getting the message? The slow-motion withdrawal is only going to cost more lives. Admit defeat, and get on with the program already, there are others in line just waiting to be invaded and oppressed.
You would think that for one week, just one week, I could skip the DWR Sunday Disservice. I’d be happy to say, “Oh hey, the religious have not done anything horribly immoral or unethical,this is a good week.”
Not gonna frakin’ happen.
This amazingly batshite nutbuttery slice of insipid religion retardation hails from the not so great state of Tennessee. The dubiously named Family Action Council is pushing for legislation that would allow students to criticize (read bully) homosexuals in school without sanction. The story is dated, but first time I’ve seen it and of course, it pisses me off that christians try and pull stupid shite like this.
The bill has not yet passed, and hopefully someone who is sane will stop this ugly freight train of hate before it gathers any more momentum.
“Why can’t we just get along?” A chilling refrain heard from mild mannered christians when they speak to atheists. I mean really if we just leave each other alone everything will be great right?
Perhaps we should ask Jessica Ahlquist about just getting along and coexisting peacefully. Ms.Ahlquist has had her docs dropped, threatened with injury and murder for her ‘crimes’ against the sanctimonious.
What did Ms.Alquist do to earn such opprobrium? She went to court to have a banner with a prayer removed from a public school. The separation of church and state in the US is constitutionally mandated. Ms.Ahlquist’s simply wanted her school to follow the law.
It is situations like this that make it hard to believe that the religious simply want to live peaceably with others that do not share their beliefs.
The children learn the hate and bigotry from their religiously besotted parents. Perhaps the above parent would react differently if it was their child being bullied and persecuted by an angry mob. But of course, empathy, compassion and tolerance are off the table when your delusional sky daddy mythology is challenged so it isn’t even a question….
Secular society is under threat from this avalanche of nuclear grade religious stupidity. I encourage my readership to distribute my post, or Practical Doubt’s and get as many eyeballs reading and minds thinking about the damage unchecked religiosity can do to a society.
Ah, progressive religious thought in action.
In another unsurprisingly putrid religious offering, the devout offer a lovely pastiche illustrating the misogyny, pettiness, and insular sectarianism that makes religion so repugnant to the rationally inclined.
“A shy eight-year-old schoolgirl has unwittingly found herself on the front line of Israel’s latest religious war.
Naama Margolese is a ponytailed, bespectacled second-grader afraid of walking to her religious Jewish girls’ school for fear of ultra-Orthodox men who have spat on her and called her a “whore” for dressing “immodestly”.
After significant media attention to the young girl’s plight, thousands came out to protest on Tuesday evening against gender segregation and violence against women at a rally in Beit Shemesh, 30km to the west of Jerusalem.”
These lovely ultra-orthodox men of faith have taken to harassing 8 year old girls because their immodest dress. Bare arms apparently qualify as immodest dress. Of course the gender policing going on here is not new – most religions by default destroy a woman’s autonomy and rights. The neat little twist here is that this is happening in a supposedly secular democratic state.
“Naama’s persecution has drawn new attention to the simmering issue of religious coercion in Israel, and the increasing brazenness by vigilantes from the insular ultra-Orthodox community.
“When I walk to school in the morning I used to get a tummy ache because I was so scared … that they were going to stand and start yelling and spitting,” she said in an interview with the Associated Press news agency on Monday.
“They were scary. They don’t want us to go to the school.”
The new girls’ school that Naama attends in the city of Beit Shemesh is on the border between an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood and a community of modern Orthodox Jewish residents, many of them American immigrants.
The ultra-Orthodox consider the school an encroachment on their territory. Dozens of black-hatted men jeer and physically accost the girls almost daily, the students say. Televised images of Naama sobbing en route to school have shocked many Israelis, elicited statements of outrage from the country’s leadership and sparked a Facebook page with nearly 10,000 followers dedicated to “protecting little Naama”.
“Who’s afraid of an 8-year-old student?” Sunday’s main headline in the leading Yediot Ahronot daily said.”
Let me answer that for you. People so utterly screwed up on the stupid-shitty-ass Koolaid known as religion that they will verbally accost and spit on children because their magic book says so. Actions such as this are so obviously wrong, but the power of faith and religious wankitude allows the believers to soldier on in the face reality and ethical considerations.
“Beit Shemesh’s growing ultra-Orthodox population has erected street signs calling for the separation of sexes on the sidewalks, dispatched “modesty patrols” to enforce a chaste female appearance and hurled stones at offenders.
Walls of the neighbourhood are plastered with signs exhorting women to dress modestly in closed-necked, long-sleeved blouses and long skirts.”
Yep, take that you unseemly, unsightly, unworthy women…cover your shame. I’m thinking the Burka treatment is in order here, lets completely dehumanize women so we can completely strip them of their rights and membership in the human race.
“The Israel police are taking, and will take, action to arrest and stop those who spit, harass or raise a hand. This has no place in a free and democratic state,” he told his cabinet.
The abuse and segregation of women in Israel in ultra-Orthodox areas is nothing new, and critics accuse the government of turning a blind eye.
The ultra-Orthodox are perennial king-makers in Israeli coalition politics – two such parties serve as key members of Netanyahu’s coalition. They receive generous government subsidies, and police have traditionally been reluctant to enter their communities.”
Ah, the reason why the burning stupid remains. Women’s autonomy and rights can happily be thrown under the bus for political expediency. O how odious religion is when given political power and room to exist within a society. Here lies yet another shining example of why states MUST be secular and the boundaries between church and state must be clearly delineated.
Not so much of the unveiled hate we’re used to this disservice, but more of an exploration of the hoops people will jump through to keep their chosen godhead happy. This video is about growing up in a fundamentalist christian household and the demonstrably evil toys that were not allowed stain one persons childhood. One can never be too careful as we all know that Care-bears are the direct line to Satan.
My Little Pony is apparently hell on wheels as well. Behold!
It is funny, but OED sent me Sturgeon’s Law as its word of the day it goes like this –
“Sturgeon’s Law – A humorous aphorism which maintains that most of any body of published material, knowledge, etc., or (more generally) of everything is worthless: based on a statement by Sturgeon (see quot. 1957), usually later cited as ‘90 per cent of everything is crap’”.
Of course, this law handily applies to the deranged brain turd trust that spewed out the idea that having the Lord’s Prayer in Public School was okay. Let me check my timepiece. Oh hey it’s not the middle ages anymore. Why are we polluting young minds with inane religious nonsense in the 21st century?
“The school of 380 students is now hoping for some guidance from the Sturgeon School Board.
“It’s our desire to be an inclusive school and respect the rights of every one,” said Goertzen.
The principal, Goertzen, by making the Prayer a part of the morning announcements is by definition not respecting the rights of everyone. Muslims Atheists and Hindu’s get to quietly suck it up while Christian Dogma is spewed every morning must be in his definition of inclusion.
Public schools are secular institutions.
“The board expects the school to solve the issue on its own.”
I suggest they start their brainstorming session from here – Public schools are secular institutions.
“I haven’t got any problem with it either way,” said chairman Terry Jewell. “If the community wants it that’s fine by me. If they don’t want it’s also fine.”
Your definitive lack of spine is noted Mr.Jewell. I’d hate for you to actually have to take a stand and say that religion has no place in our public schools as that might upset the fundies. Never fear though, the front lines of our educational system are being upheld with vigilance and care. Sorta kinda…
“Under provisions in the British North America Act, now part of the Canadian constitution, public schools in Alberta and Saskatchewan can offer religious education if parents so desire, said Jewell”
I guess hiding behind the BNA act is considered a strong enough defence of pubic education these days. The idea that a school board can even entertain the idea of having religion in public schools in the 21st century in Canada leaves me gobsmacked.
Teaching children the mendacious foolishness of *any* religion is a huge disservice to them. Saddling yet another generation with erroneous perceptions of how the world works is a monumental disservice to them and society.
It should not be happening – ceiling cat is displeased.
I hope to inspire a little cognitive dissonance in the faithful. :)
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