Letters to the Editor
Mishima666
Published Letters: 125 Editor's Choice: 28
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The argument of equivalency
[Read the article: The Mormons are coming]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It certainly is true that all religions have beliefs that can't be rationally verified, that some of these beliefs are incredible, that the history in the sacred texts can't be verified, that every religion has negative aspects, that followers of every religion have at some point done very evil things, and so on.
These are all facts that I think any thinking person would agree with. But it's one thing to agree with all the above, and quite another thing to hold that because of the above, all religions are basically the same -- that, say, a Jew or a Christian can't criticize a Mormon because "all religion is the same," or "all religion is just as bad," or "all religious beliefs are goofy."
While the previously-mentioned facts are to some extent true of all religions, there is much more to every religion that just those facts.
Not all religions are created equal. Some religions are better than others. Not all religious beliefs are equally incredible. For example, it's one thing to say "I believe in Jesus Christ." It's quite another thing to say "I am Jesus Christ." The first claim is incredible; the second is bizarre. While the Catholic inquisition was a great evil, that doesn't mean that there is "no difference" between the Catholic church, Jim Jones' People's Temple, and the Heaven's Gate group.
To the extent that the more extreme groups have any good in them, it is because they have appropriated the good things from some traditional religion. What the extreme groups have added is often far more bizarre, unbelievable, and evil than anything found in the traditional religion. Jim Jones took some good things from traditional Christianity and added mass suicide. Vernon Howell took the Bible and a number of traditional Christian beliefs, and then turned himself into David Koresh, the Lamb of God spoken of in the Book of Revelation.
Certainly Mormons are not at all like the self-destructive cults I have mentioned. But they have taken traditional Christianity and add a layer of bizarre beliefs on top of it.
To say that all religions are the same is simply an attempt by people who don't like any religion to bring all religions down to the same level. In doing that we lose some very important distinctions, and more importantly, we lose the ability to discern the good from the bad, the incredible from the bizarre.
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I may be missing something, but . . .
[Read the article: Taser nation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It seems to me that this guy is a video junkie, someone who just can't get enough of himself on video. Yes, whatever the issue, it's ultimately all about Andrew Meyer.
When the time alloted for your question is done, you leave the microphone. If the officers are wrong in taking you away from the mic, you deal with that later. But you don't resist. When you resist armed police or security officers with the power to arrest, bad things happpen.
This asshole had all the time in the world to plan what he was going to do, including having another person shoot the incident with his camera. He put the security officers -- poor sons of bitches just trying to make a living -- in the position of having to make decisions in seconds.
When they take him away from the microphone he resists. At that point, the situation changes. In the videos I saw, four or five officers struggled to control him, with only partial success. Like it or not, at that point the safety of the officers is the main issue.
The asshole gets tazed, and becomes compliant, the desired effect. If you look at the video of the asshole in the lobby, he looks fine, even as he says "they're trying to kill me!" Bullshit.
Basically, this cocksucker used the security officers to stage a show with him as the star. My sympathy is with the officers, probably underpaid and undertrained, who, in a matter of seconds are supposed to react perfectly in every way. Of course, Andrew Meyer cares nothing for them; they are merely unwilling actors in his play.
But I suppose my understanding of the situation is tainted by having a relative who was a law enforcement office murdered while trying to restrain someone. Anyone who wants to criticize the officers -- you go put on the uniform and see how your perspective changes.
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A great difference
[Read the article: The light's on, but is anybody home?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The article mentions Terri Schiavo. So what will happen now is that across the religious right blogosphere a hundred thousand posts will proclaim "see, we were right after all. Terri Schiavo was conscious!"
What the article doesn't make very clear is that not all brain injuries are the same. There is a tremendous difference between someone who is merely unconscious due to a traumatic head injury or stroke, and someone such as Terri Schiavo who has suffered extensive anoxic loss of brain tissue. It's the difference between a brain that is injured but largely intact, and one in which the cerebral cortex is virtually gone -- the difference, so to speak, between someone whose leg has been severely injured and someone whose leg has been amputated.