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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Someone ought to ask Gov. Palin what she thinks of these verses, since she's so big on Biblical literalism.
Dear Church Lady
You wrote: "Now we know you wouldn't ridicule Joe Biden's religion, you wouldn't ridicule John McCain's religion, you wouldn't ridicule Joe Lieberman's religion, you wouldn't ridicule Mitt Romney's religion, but you would ridicule Sarah Palin's religion. Well isn't that special?"
I'll be happy to ridicule all of their religions when their religions attempt to suppress my right to find their pronouncements and pretensions unpersuasive. Isn't that what 'Freedom of Religion" means?
Let's start with Joe Biden, when his pope went into Jamaican ghettos, the barrios of Mexico City and the flavelas of Rio de Janiero, and preached against birth-control, I said that he should have been arrested as a common criminal for willfully spreading poverty, disease and death among the poorest-of-the-poor. I hardly hold Senator Biden responsible for that act of his pope, but I do consider it despicable.
What can I say about Senator Lieberman's religion? Everyone has had a shot at ridiculing Jews. The Germans did the most memorable work graphically, which they backed up with the clearest texts of Jew-hatred from Martin Luther, himself. Did you know that at the beginning, in the beer-halls, the Nazi's couldn't afford to print their own anti-Semitic diatribes? Yea, they had to get donations of "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" from America's Henry Ford, which were delivered through the Ford Foundation, to help stir-up virulent anti-semitism in Germany. People have been ridiculing our religion for thousands of years, yet we've managed to survive, often despite the very best efforts of Christians.
Mitt Romney's religion, Mormonism, is based upon texts that are historically, scientifically and anthropologically absurd - all concocted by a convicted con-man. What's to ridicule? But the fact is: the Mormons, in general, live decent lives; organize their society in a very productive manner and they take care of their own. What business is it of mine, that they believe things that I believe to be nonsense? Mitt Romney seemed like a smart guy, too bad he wasn't Christian enough for the contemporary - degenerate Republican Party.
John McCain's religion? What is there to say about a man who changed his religion to make himself more acceptable to religious bigots, in order to get a political nomination? I was a big Senator McCain fan in 2000, before the "Straight Talk Express" went off the tracks. Now John McCain, the war-hero who voted for torture; the war-monger, who consistently votes against veteran's benefits; the presidential candidate who is virtually clueless on every social issue and utterly ignorant of the consequences of the tax-cuts that he voted against but now supports (after it is clear that his business allies have so betrayed America's brand with a Ponzi scheme of worthless financial instruments that they crashed the greatest economic boom in modern history with greed and corruption). The John McCain who had to ask his aid whether he is for birth-control or against it and doesn't spontaneously know what he thinks about condoms... how does one ridicule John McCain's religion, when as close as I can determine, he believes in NOTHING.
Joey Tranchina
that some amongst us would consider her extreme religious views irrelevant. I doubt any of them would say the same if she belonged to an equivalent sect of another religion. So it isn't mecessarily about her beliefs per se, but that those beliefs drive her approach to governing, as corroborated stories about her in Alaska bear out.
Most troubling about her, right now, is that she's not talking to the press, and that the McCain campaign is pushing the idea that the press is "unfair" to her, same old victim routine. No VP pick in history has been sequestered like this. It is BTW a perfect come-back to her supporters--why the secrecy?
Because for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad religion and religious objectives seem to trump secular policy objectives, as it does for the religious leadership who have ultimate power -- that is why the US, the EU and even the Russians and Chinese regard a nuclear Iran with consternation, but are calmer about India and (depending on what happens) Pakistan. Everyone is afraid that Iran will nuke say Israel for some doctrinal isue, or use the nukes against Sunni Saudi Arabia.
And how is Palin different -- again and again a religious imperative seems to drive her actions. Take for example the row about making rape victims in Wasilla pay for the Rape Kit (the evidentiary kit and medical exam, which costs $300-1400.) There is a strong smell that this was driven because such rape kits include "emergency contraception." And to the anti-abortion lobby, the morning after pill is a contraceptive -- and I know this. In the 1980s a friend in Dublin where I was in college, a doctor (Psychiatrist) worked in a rape crisis center and I was present for a huge row with her GP boyfriend when she discussed the measures taken for rape victims -- he freaked when she said "and we give them the morning after pill" ranting on and on about it being an abortifaciant. Think about this -- she preferred that Wasila ask rape victims, just after the medical exam for a cheque than run the risk that they might choose emergency contraception -- this woman is extreme.
Now we have her asking her Church to pray that US soldiers are on a mission from God! And what do the Taliban, Al Quaeda, etc. believe? These religious whack-jobs were among the biggest backers of the religious wing of the Majhadin in Afghanistan that became the Talibam -- hell, I read speeches by US fundamentalists lauding the Taliban right up until they took office.
There is a difference between her, Biden and Obama here and it is an important one ... Biden and Obama have, whatever their religious views embraced the idea of a secular humanists state .. that what happens in this world is more important than the next ... Palin has not, for her serving her conception of God's is the most important thing, and if third parties suffer, raped women, hell raped children, bear their rapist's children, that is God's will.
So here is the question, what will Ahmadinejad or Khamenei do if they think Allah wants them to nuke someone? What will Palin do if using nukes is necessary to bring the "End-Times" and the "Rapture" -- could you conceive of Obama or Biden doing the same? And what about other policy issues -- West Bank settlements? a Palestinian state? Will she make policy decisions based on the facts, or on God's will?
And by the way, if the Republicans spread stories about Obama the Muslin -- why not Sarah the Fundamentalist Whacko! Are we going to disarm because the fully loaded for bear Republicans say we should?
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Salon headlines in your mailbox
