BREAKING: Uganda Gay Activist Beheaded

Is this the result of Lou Engle's Rhetoric?

I couldn't find the proper color for the above title: Jungle Red was not available.

From 365Gay.com

Ugandan LGBT activist Pasikali Kashusbe was discovered murdered when Ugandan police found his severed head, which had been thrown down a latrine.

Kashube was a volunteer with Integrity Uganda, a gay rights group. He went missing in June, but Ugandan officials only found him when they were searching for another missing gay activist, Rev. Henry Kayizzi Nsubuga.

Nsubuga has been missing for three weeks, ever since he delivered a sermon in support of gay rights in Uganda.

 For further thoughts on Lou Engle and Uganda, please read the post below.

Lou Engle's Goal: Demonize Gays To Extinction

My tolerance of a religion ENDS when said religion wants to kill me.

- Reality Bong:

Abomination

The word "abomination"* is considered by some to be the king of buzz words. It's the word that triggers the most disgust in Fundamentalists. It has been used to describe horrors against God and nature. It has been used to distinguish whole segments of society as sinful and unfit for any consideration. It has been used to fashion a weapon out of the Bible. It has been printed in letters three feet tall on placards used in vehement protest during Gay Pride festivals. It is not, however, a word used to describe self-styled prophets such as Lou Engle.

It should be.

Another name/attribute that could be given to Lou Engle: The Demonizer, for Lou Engle's sole purpose in life seems to be to demonize homosexuals out of existence. And quickly. When you hear Lou Engle's raspy voice, there is, above all else, an immediacy to contend with: homosexuality has done so much  to demoralize America that only strong punishments will stem the evil's tide. Punishments like imprisonment and execution.

Do I sound extreme? Am I simply being hypocritical by actually "demonizing" Engle myself? Like many progressive souls, I try to research items of injustice. Occasionally I come up with some salient points amongst a myriad of negative comments. Unfortunately, I've given up trying to find something, anything, of value in a Engle's rhetoric, for after experiencing it even at its mildest, I feel my humanity violated.The highest level of passion always reeks of the sinister, to say the very least.

Until recently, The Demonizer has always tried to sheath his sword  of hatred for homosexuals within the thin scabbard of "love." It's time to be coarse and say "bulls**t!" What he and other anti-gay "men of God" know about the love-the-sinner-hate-the-sin dictum is that very few people attempt it because it's totally against human nature.  Some few actually site it hoping their flock will take it to heart, while most simply use it as good PR spin. It's notable that beyond the love-the-sinner meme,  Engle never attempts to soften the soul of his flock. On the contrary, his use of militaristic phrases, buzz words and images of violence harden people to the possibility that homosexuals might be human. Homosexuals are possessed by demons. Period. The "gay agenda" is evil incarnate.

Referring to his son Jesse's call to minister in San Francisco:

"... to go to San Francisco to launch a house of prayer, one block from the Castro District - where the homosexuals boast the dominion of darkness."  

His followers hissed and booed at the mere mention of San Francisco. Are we to believe that they will turn around 180 degrees and love those who "boast the dominion of darkness?" Delusion has its purpose I suspect, but few, if anyone, are quite that delusional - or clueless.

And lest someone think that Engle is completely clueless, his purposes are quite clear: eradicate homosexuality by eradicating homosexuals. His son's ministry and his teen followers' witnessing in San Francisco's Castro district were dismal failures. The district's population feel rightly insulted whenever a self-righteous group starts singing hymns to pray away their gayness because they know that the meek exteriors of the choir house feelings of disgust. Abomination. Hypocrisy fairly glows from Engle's young followers.

The Darkest Raison d'etre Exposed

Five days ago, Engle's purposes were exposed by TWO (Truth Wins Out) reporter Evan Hurst. He attended one of Engle's smaller revivals in St. Louis (June 19 to July 12) and was able to tape Engle's tirade, this time aimed at a more select (and apparently more discreet) group of followers. Hurst's professionalism is evident in his restraint, even while giving the reader his thoughts on Engle's extreme rhetoric. And extreme it is:

“If we’re struggling with a homosexual, same-sex desire, LET THE BIBLE KILL YOU, rather than make it easier for you, and say well, there must be a better scriptural answer to this … Brothers and sisters, let the Bible kill you rather than you twist the scriptures!"

Hurst went "underground" to capture a speech/sermon given to a group much smaller than Engle's more public rants. He openly admits that his words are too violent for larger groups and that he will be "vilified" if a tape of it ever surfaces. He peppers his speech with anxious asides of "Are we taping?" 

Engle calls his followers "Yahweh Separatists." And in the midst of relating the story of Jezebel and Ahab - paralleling to our own government - he says:

“The Yahweh separatist prophets gotta kill those guys!”

Reporter Hurst tries to maintain an objective, even keel, but finally notes:

But this is the kind of eliminationist rhetoric that, when it goes into the ears of certain kinds of crazies, can be deadly.

As deadly as the kind of "imprecatory prayer" Rev. Wiley Drake called upon to kill President Obama? Hardly. Drake's call for a curse on Obama was summarily laughed at by the public, both secular and religious. The Demonizer doesn't pray for a curse, but instead let's his followers decide whether or not to act:

“Our president two days ago came out and said ‘We bless the fathers of families that have two fathers’! This is a decree, a blessing, called this month, LGBT pride month. When decrees come from high places, it actually opens doors! It is a key! It unlocks the spiritual realm for the fueling of the demonization of culture! Is this being taped?” (voice from bouncer/heavy off to the side interjects “We can erase it.") 

It is rather ironic that it is Lou Engle who considers acceptance of gays as demonization of culture. Then again, it's not clear as to which culture he's referring to, his own culture or the humanist culture** of Western Civilization.

There are more than several ways of  analyzing Engle's mind when confronted with the possible effects of his own rhetoric: a. he simply doesn't care because "God's word" trumps all consequences, b. he honestly doesn't think it's toxic enough to warrant concern, c. he means it and hopes that someone will act on it without implicating him directly. In the final analysis, however, all we have to go on is his actual rhetoric:

“Saint means HOLY and Louis means WARRIOR. Holy war! I like that!”

I think "c" may be the only reasonable answer, unless we are to relegate Engle to the role of crazy cult leader. And even if he is, we can't negate the fact that he is a growing force in today's Christofascist movement. James Dobson, Tony Perkins, U.S. senators and congressmen have already paid him obeisance and African leaders and legislators are eager to give The Call their stamp of approval.

The Infamous Lie:

Before his May 2nd appearance in Uganda for TheCall Ministries, Engle released this statement:

TheCall has been wrongfully marked and vilified as an organization promoting hatred and violence against homosexuals and as one that supports the Uganda bill as currently written...

But apparently, The Demonizer didn't think that anybody outside Uganda would pay attention to what he would say inside Uganda: he warned the youth in the crowd that when America allowed homosexuals freedom it was the end of their nation. 

Waymon Hudson, The Huffington Post:

He [Engle] called upon the government of Uganda to be firm and hold on its righteous stand against the evil. He mentioned that homosexuals have penetrated the educational system and Ugandans must be aware of the evil.

The Engle-Warren Connection

Every public luminary has a mentor, so it is interesting to note that Lou Engle's mentor and Rick Warren's doctoral dissertation advisor are one and the same: C. Peter Wagner, founder of New Apostolic Reformation which holds as one of its immutable dictums that homosexuality is a sin. It is also notable that Rick Warren openly lied about his association with Wagner. Wagner, along with Engle, have both been credited with assisting Uganda in structuring the "Kill the Gays" bill.


The Demonizer never sites a Biblical scholar. That's no surprise, since scholarship of the Bible encourages people to think about all of its contradictions and historical/anthropological inconsistencies. A following of questioning minds tends to be not much of a following. Inerrantists need total control of their flock. And total control can only be achieved by convincing an uneducated group that every word is absolutely true. And supreme. 

Engle skirts scholarship by telling people that he is a prophet. Or moreover, Engle trumps scholarship by relating his "visions" and dreams which, of course, have been sent to him directly by God. What Engle has experienced, scholars can only make "educated" guesses at.

The quick and easy denunciation of progressive Christians is that they are false prophets:

“When men leading this nation as Christian leaders speak of gay Christians, they are actually false prophets! There are Christians struggling with same-sex desires, but those who are gay Christians, who say, “This is my lifestyle, and God is pleased with it!”, this is false prophets! I’d like to just shout it in the news, but they’ll vilify me."

People For The American Way has a "hit parade" list of Lou Engle's rants. Not all of them can be viewed because most have been removed. While The Demonizer's public demeanor is horrendous enough, it is noticeably softer than his smaller gatherings. Evan Hurst's TWO post (and tape) should be examined closely.

On the latest SCOTUS ruling that Christian groups must allow gay membership:

“This is the first time in U.S. history where the Supreme Court has actually ruled that gender rights now trump religious rights, which means this is the beginning of the possible coming harassment and persecution of the church because it’s going to be clear that the true church will take a stand only on the Word of God,”

The Demonizer echoes the likes of Tony Perkins and Pat Robertson with the subject of "Christian Persecution" while mangling the English Language ("...beginning of the possible coming?")

Lou "The Demonizer" Engle calls for martyrs to his cause. But while some of his martyrs will be "persecuted" for singing hymns in the Castro, some others may go down with guns blazing.  Just the way Engle wants it. And if some of his followers question Engle, asking if there are some good gays worth saving from imprisonment and death, his response might be similar to that of Arnaud Amaury, abbot of Citeaux and military leader besieging the town of Beziers, France and before the massacre of its ten thousand inhabitants:

*The word "abomination" was the keystone of Judaism. From Religion Dispatches:

The term toevah (and its plural, toevot) occurs 103 times in the Hebrew Bible, and almost always has the connotation of a non-Israelite cultic practice. In the Torah, the primary toevah is avodah zara, foreign forms of worship, and most other toevot flow from it. The Israelites are instructed not to commit toevah because other nations do so. Deuteronomy 18:9-12 makes this quite clear..."

** The Demonizer thinks that every person outside of his ring of adherents has no relevance whatsoever to God's world whether spiritual or physical. To most people, humanism simply means a system of secular ethics, but to Fundamentalists and people of Engle's ilk, humanists are ungodly and therefore, worthless until being "saved."

The Outbreeders: Mandating A Baby Boom For The Culture War

             

Flooding The Nation With  

Christian Rightwingers

Imagine a country full of home-schooled children who are taught that people who do not believe what they believe, act the way they act, live the way they live deserve to be discriminated against, deported, incarcerated, or worse... Sounds like a B movie filled with tykes whose eyes emit laser beams, vaporizing people they feel threatened by, doesn't it? 

Well, that B movie is just the thing envisioned by Bryan Fischer's D-class intellect.  The reasoning goes like this: the left has so many pro-choice people, feminists and homosexuals that the right will outbreed them and (insert maniacal laughter) take over the world!  

Bryan Fischer of the AFA:

What this means quite simply is that liberals are breeding themselves out of existence ... All this represents a marvelous opportunity for conservatives. We can regain political control of this country by simply following the biblical mandate to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

Of course, the thought never occured to Fischer that  some gays, feminists and pro-choice peopler might be bred in the process, because true Christians NEVER have gay,  pro-choice or feminist children. Note to Fischer: breeding to outnumber doesn't guarantee complete extinction, unless you couple overbreeding wityh conscious genocide - the kind that your friends want in Uganda (and Zimbabwe and Texas).

And those conservatives he speaks to, none of them are "on the dole" are they? Popping out kids for the sake of a political population explosion means that the parents better have the means to support them. Fischer is a typical pro-lifer who confuses being "pro-birth" with "pro-life." After the infant gets slapped on the butt and cries, Fischer doesn't care what happens to the kid. Pay for those kids? Their homes, their food, their clothes, their education? Don't be ridiculous! Once that kid is born, the parents have to make do.  Let them shell out for Fischer's beliefs. After all, that's the American way! And if the kid winds up becoming a criminal on death row, well, Fischer will never attempt to stay his execution. So it's pop kids out as fast as possible, imbue them with as much hatred for liberals as you possibly can, hope they survive to voting age, then sick them on an unsuspecting Congress (OK, the last may not be very hard to do). Pretty cool idea, huh?

QUIVERFULL

The Quiverfull movement espouses having as many children as possible, faithfully following the dictum "Be friutful and multiply." If every child is a "gift from God" then the movement's followers can be viewed as somewhat greedy. But according to some, Quiverfull people are more than greedy for "gifts from God", they are "culture warriors":

wikipedia:

On July 25, 2005, ABC Good Morning America segment, "Is eight really enough?" Deborah Roberts interviews Rachel Scott, author of "Birthing God's Mighty Warriors". Rachel Scott discusses the trend toward larger families, managing finances with more mouths to feed and she states, "when good people stop having kids, society fails."

If this militaristic stance seems familiar, look back to  evangelical leaders like Rod Parsley and Lou Engle. Their sermons are filled with militaristic jargon that would make a general proud. The unfortunate thing about religious militarism is that too many congregants react emotionally and physically to it. 

Fundamentalists aren't very good with metaphors.

And the militarism is most effectively used on children from day one. Breeding little armies is very "fruitful". One of the most blatant examples of "breeding for God" has been cable TV's Duggar family. The family's promoting over-population to such an extent that one wonders about the parents' motives: are they supporting the kids or are the kids supporting them? 

A century and a half ago P.T. Barnum would have figured out a way to make the Duggars a sideshow in his circus. Or at least Michelle Duggar: "Meet the amazing woman who just can't stop bearing children!!" But in essence, they've already done that to their family and in this day and age, being a sideshow, ahem, I mean a celebrated family, can be very lucrative. They can afford to propagate.

More kids! More kids! Don't Abort! Seriously, Bryan Fischer and Tony Perkins (to name a few) are getting frightfully demented with their hypocrisy. Can you imagine how the Duggars would be treated if they were black and on food stamps? Perkins would have  advocated forcibly tying Michelle's tubes at least 10 kids ago as well as questioning the "morality" of the parents for introducing the children to welfare and poverty.


Quiverfull is also promoting sterilization reversal surgery. As yet it hasn't purchased fertility drugs en masse, but give it time. 


Critics of Quiverfull add one more flaw in the crank 'em out movement: 


wikipedia:

Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff, a former ardent Quiverfull adherent, birth-mother of eleven children, and former editor of Gentle Spirit Magazine, argues that the Quiverfull movement is one "in which women and children are routinely and systematically subordinated and subjugated by the men in their lives - fathers, husbands, older sons,. . .pastors, elders, leaders - as a matter of biblical principle." Seelhoff charges that Quiverful adherents "never talk about the victims of the movement, other than to distance themselves, to explain how it is that the victims are aberrations."

The most famous victim of Quiverfull's proselytizing has been Andrea Yates, the Houston housewife who drowned her five children in a bathtub on June 20, 2001. 

Her first psychiatrist, Dr. Eileen Starbranch, warned Yates and her husband against having more children, stating in Yates's medical record two days later, '"Apparently patient and husband plan to have as many babies as nature will allow! This will surely guarantee future psychotic depression."

From the Dionne Quintuplets to Octomom, extreme fertility will always be a headliner, but the topic has never really had political implications. Until now.

The Duggars are slated to headline Tony Perkins' Values Voter Summit

IT FIGURES: Ten-Year-Old And His Family Attacked by the AFA and Primitive Remnants of the Bible Belt!

 Demonizing Has Hit New Lows

"Freedom of speech. The freedom to disagree. That’s what I think pretty much being an American represents." 

- Will Phillips

The AFA has been trying valiantly to paint everyone within a mile of a homosexual as being a supporter of abject perversion. And when the person in question is actually supportive of gay rights, then they're doomed, brainwashed, gay, or just plain evil. Take your pick.

In young Will Phillips' case, it's definitely  "brainwashed," while his parents are probably "doomed" and the gay community of northwest Arkansas is "evil." 

AFA President Tim Wildmon says,

 “It’s shameful that adults would abuse a brain-washed child in this way. He’s obviously just parroting the nonsense he’s been told by manipulative adults. For gay activists to trot out this child and make him the poster child for promoting unnatural sexual expression is a form of child abuse."

Of course, the AFA's Bryan Fischer also chimed in with threats:

The AFA, according to Fischer, has sent an “action alert” to its members in Arkansas, and he says they have deluged the mayor’s and city council’s office with e-mails “asking him to stop this charade.” Though there are no plans to actively protest at the parade, Fischer said, “as of noon Thursday our records show that the mayor and city council had received 12,300 e-mails asking them to stop the parade.”

To suggest that Will has been "brainwashed" might stand against an ordinary 10-year-old (or any child in a Christian Right family), but Will Phillips is no "ordinary child" Watch his acceptance speech at the GLAAD Awards last March. His parents insist that he wrote it himself and I don't think anyone would lie about a kid like this: he's obviously got a career as a public speaker ahead of him.  

He's also as gutsy as his parents (who have attended Gay Pride parades for years): when his substitute teacher sternly reprimanded him (about not standing and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance) and mentioned his relatives in her harangue, he very calmly said, "With all due respect, mam, you can jump off a bridge."

Will's Parents:

We will NOT be cowed by National Bully groups or anyone else! Our family has attended this parade for nearly 5 years and we would be doing so even if Will WASN'T Grand Marshall.

What I love about Will's acceptance speech at the GLAAD Awards: he is intentionally droll. His sense of humor really comes out at the ___ mark when he refers to 10-year-olds being as intelligent as "most" people. When it's obvious to someone of Will's caliber that people on the Right are essentially stupid when it comes to their intolerance, then you know that feelings against the Right and fighting for what's right are exceptionally strong. And you also know that there are a lot of people out there like Will and his parents who won't be cowed by empty demonstrations of righteousness. 

Will has not been brainwashed. He has been enlightened about humanity and he has already learned how to cope with the mindlessly vicious that exemplifies the far Right. 

As he leads the parade, let's view some of the comments from his neighbors in Fayetteville. Some are supportive, but most are not. Some veer on the side of righteous violence.

Comments posted on Fayetteville's TV station, THV:

>> I say this punk needs his ass whooped !

 

>>At 10 years old he doesn't know enough to "stand up" for anything! I agree with you, lindajune! Give his parents a lick or two also for allowing him to do this!

 

>>Being gay is WRONG! This childs parents will answer.

 

>>It's SAD that a mayor would use a child to promote disgrace to our state.

 

>>To all the people who might label me a religious nutbag, go ahead. I believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God, God breathed and inspired.
My father is a sexual devient who calls himself a homosexual. I grew up around the homosexual community in Little Rock and at best, the homosexuals were barely functional in society, much less than a positive contribution to society.

>>They can be all they can be out there on the street. When they step in my yard then I deal with them equal. I'll ask anyone to leave just one time. After that it's skull busting time. On the street I give them respect. I get out of their way and let them do their thing. Everyone should be treated with respect.

 

>>The little boy doesn't know about sexual preference yet and there is a real good chance he don't understand the Gospel yet. The way I understand the Bible he is safe in God's hands until he does understand the Gospel. Hopefully he will hear it somewhere before he is grown, understand and be maracliously born again.

  

>>One other thing...

The United States of America is a nation composed of many different cultures. It is NOT the United Christian States of America. WE THE PEOPLE are Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and a host of other beliefs, including agnostics and atheists. As such, the law of one set of beliefs, such as Christianity, should not be used to restrict the rights of others who do not share those beliefs. We have laws that WE THE PEOPLE have determined that were needed.

One of those laws is that our nation can not dictate religious beliefs upon the citizens, something that I feel many here would like to change.

>>Hell I guess he'll be President one day since he is so good at giving speeches. I wonder if he has a birth certificate. I wonder is the protestors in Kansas are going to be in the parade or will they protest it? No think all military are gay. Wonder what side of the fence they are on? I bet the parents are some real winners too. 

 

>>I think a child should stay in a childs place and that is not being grand marshal at a gay parade. As far as refusing to say the pledge of alledgance, I think maybe he should research a child friendly place .....like Russia.

  

>>[the family is] not worried about any backlash. Jay says, "I don't think anyone would say mean things about a 10-year-old."

And look how quickly y'all rushed to prove him wrong.

SHAMEFUL. 

 

>>There is a thin line between beliefs and just rude little kid's, I believe he need's yanked from any speaking engagements till he grows at least 10,000 hairs other than his head. He knows nothing about life or the pursuit of it. Get him back in a classroom with a book in hand and tape over his mouth.

>>Someone needs to call CPS! VERY SAD! 

 

A Conspiracy Waiting To Happen: Erik Prince, The CIA, Tony Perkins, The ACLJ and ... Africa

Blackwater's "Indiana Jones" May Soldier For 

Right-Wing Christianity In Africa 

When I was a kid, my father tried to translate the family name  - Vojir - to me (from Czech): "It means a kind of paid soldier. A Hessian. A soldier of fortune." Ah, "soldier of fortune" was great way to put it, I thought. I didn't press any further. I was satisfied. Glamorous. Mysterious. Sophisticated. It was only when I was in college that I realized that the meaning was closely related to the term "mercenary." Somehow, "mercenary" isn't as glamorous.

So I sit here a "mercenary," writing about Erik Prince, today's undisputed king of mercenaries. Of Blackwater infamy. A man whose "soldiers" are feared more in Iraq and Afghanistan than any U.S. military force. A man with extremely close ties to Family Research Council and Focus on the Family. OK, I'll stop channeling Rachel Maddow, but you get my drift.

And the makings for a conspiracy just might be in this bit of news:

Jeremy Scahill, The Nation:

Sources close to Blackwater and its secretive owner Erik Prince claim that the embattled head of the world's most infamous mercenary firm is planning to move to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Middle Eastern nation, a major hub for the US war industry, has no extradition treaty with the United States. In April, five of Prince's top deputies were hit with a fifteen-count indictment by a federal grand jury on conspiracy, weapons and obstruction of justice charges. Among those indicted were Prince's longtime number-two man, former Blackwater president Gary Jackson, former vice presidents William Matthews and Ana Bundy and Prince's former legal counsel Andrew Howell. 

Prince's move is like a Midwest tornado watch: the conditions are ripe for something to happen. Could it be a conscious conspiracy or just a re-grouping?

Most of the media have translated the move as a protection against prosecution for crimes, including the alleged murder of an informant inside Blackwater. This could very well be. But is it the only reason? Let's look at Erik's closest relations, friends and allies: 

For starters, Erik Prince's father, Edgar Prince, used a great deal of his auto parts fortune to fund both Focus on the Family and The Family Research Council.

Else Prince Broekhuizen  - Erik's mother - gave a whopping $450,000 to California's Prop 8 campaign. After the death of Edgar Prince, she married her pastor, Ren Broehuizen. She was also a member of the secretive Council on National Policy.* The CNP was founded by author Tim LaHaye (the Left Behind series). Elsa Prince is also a major contributor and board member of The Family Research Council. Of course, because of major contributions, the FRC runs its mass printing facility out of Holland, MI. (Prince's home).

Betsy DeVos - sister of Erik -  was chairman of the Republican Party for the State of Michigan. Her husband, Jim DeVos is heir to the Amway fortune and attempted a run for Governor of Michigan. Betsy is also chairman of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. The Institute's mission is to "promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles." Some of its members are, like Marvin Orlasky, dedicated to demonizing the beliefs of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Joseph E. Schmitz was special assistant to Attorney General Edwin Meese, then Inspector General of the Department of Defense under George H.W. Bush. Before his resignation, he recused himself from the investigation of Blackwater Worldwide in order to take a position for the Prince Group (holding company of Blackwater). Non-related tidbit: Schmitz's sister is the (in)famous Mary Kay Letourneau who was convicted of having sexual relations with a minor (then a 12-year-old boy whom she later married). 

As head of the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, Prince has funded The Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Christian Freedom International, the Republican Party, The Alliance Defense Fund, Calvin College, the Haggai Institute (India), the Michigan Family Forum, the Free Congress Foundation, Gospel Communications International, and The Education Freedom Fund, and the Knights of Columbus (now considered a prime funder of anti-gay initiatives).

Add to this powerful group Jack Abramoff, the CIA, Chuck Colson, Gary Bauer, Holland Coors, Tim LaHaye, Ollie North, Dick Chaney, Ralph Reed and a bevy of Reconstructionists all paying homage to R.J. Rushdooney.**

For a more in-depth (and head-spinning) treatment of Erik Prince's associations, go to the interactive graphic at Muckety. The reader will be amazed at the political-religious-corporate web in which Prince negotiates liaisons and subterfuge. 

Then there's Prince's undoubtedly nefarious relationship with the CIA:

From the National Post:

WASHINGTON -- The CIA in 2004 hired contractors from the private security firm Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to track and assassinate senior al-Qaeda figures, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Blackwater helped with planning, training and surveillance in a program on which the Central Intelligence Agency spent several million dollars without capturing or killing any militants, the newspaper reported, quoting former and current U.S. officials.

Anchored with the CIA, extreme Religious Right institutions and a continent ripe for theocracy, Prince's residence in Dubai  may be both convenient and prescient: armed support for conflicts within "emerging Christian nations" would bolster Reconstructionist evangelism, support ideologies such as criminalizing homosexuality,*** and counter any threats posed  by Islam.Watch the second clip below to discern if Erik Prince is not eager to go to Africa. It was recorded on Oct. 16, 2007 during the preliminary investigations of Blackwater. Prince chooses words very carefully, so look at his demeanor and ask yourself if he really wants to be a peacekeeper as Rose tries to suggest, or a Soldier for Christ, enabling the extreme Religious Right gain a very strong foothold in Africa.

After announcing the sale of Blackwater, Erik Prince was asked what he would do for a living:

(Think Progress)

Prince said he is instead “going to teach high school.” “History and economics,” he said. “I may even coach wrestling. Hey, Indiana Jones taught school, too.”

But not in Dubai. 

UPDATE:

News has arrived pertaining to the presence of the ACLJ (American Center for Law and Justice - a legal defense team formed by Pat Robertson) in Zimbabwe. The ACLJ has been instrumental in Zimbabwe's efforts to draft a new constitution. Zimbabwe is now the new Uganda.

Footnotes:

* The Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy at Cornell University considers the Council for National Policy a leading force in the Dominionist movement. TheocracyWatch, a CRESP project, describes it as "an umbrella organization of right-wing leaders who gather regularly to plot strategy, share ideas and fund causes and candidates to advance the theocratic agenda."

**Rousas John Rushdoony (April 25, 1916 – February 8, 2001) was a Calvinist philosopher, historian, and theologian and is widely credited as the father of Christian Reconstructionism and an inspiration for the modern Christian homeschool movement. His prolific writings have exerted considerable influence on the Christian right.

***Already the Republican Party 2010 Platform for the State of Texas promotes the criminalization of gays and the felony conviction of anyone who marries same-sex couples.

Dumpster Diving Daddy: Limbaugh Belly-flops Into Well-Deserved Outrage!

"There's the Dollar Menu at McDonald's and 

if they don't have Chicken McNuggets, 

dial 911 and ask for Obama."

8:30PM (PT)

Until now, Michael Savage's comments on autistic children rated #1 for idiotic tastelessness. Not to be outdone, however, Rush Limbaugh has finally come up with something so tasteless that it almost defies description.

Of course, it's covering the net, fomenting like pond scum, (or BP's gift to America). EVERYONE's writing about it. And in joining the pack, I feel like one of the torch-bearing villagers in Frankenstein.  I can't help it. I'm swept away by the fear and loathing Limbaugh loves to engender. Perhaps that's the reason I hate Rush Limbaugh so much: he MAKES me hate him and laughs when I become one of the villagers.

And he laughs at his own listeners. Last September, he boasted about his wealth ($400m and counting) and said he didn't see any recession. Some of his "faithful" must have winced at that one. But now people all over the country are wincing. More than wincing. Liberal America is foaming at the mouth (I know I am!). This latest will set Limbaugh over any BP headline. Just as Limbaugh intended. Because he knows that as long as you provide the American public with entertainment, you will be a man of extreme power.

So thus has Limbaugh provided us with a sideshow of incredible entertainment: WHO will be the first right-winger to denounce him? WHO will be the first suicidal right-winger to defend him? And WHO will simply remain silent? Like his cohort, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh has managed to turn the mocking of children into a political circus. Another thought: WHO among today's "socially conservative" preachers and Religious Right will dare to defend him? Bryan Fischer might. Tony Perkins might. Pat Robertson might, although people would just blame his escalating senility. Michele Bachmann might, but then she may not know who Rush Limbaugh is. That woman's pathetically clueless.

Will Limbaugh get away with it? Of course. His following will accept his deepest apologies. And if he doesn't apologize, there will be this litany of triteness:

"That's just Limbaugh."

"He doesn't speak for us."

"Just another blowhard"

"He probably didn't mean it."

"You've read him all wrong."

"Beck's just as bad."

"Don't pay any attention. He doesn't have any power."

And the ones who OWE Limbaugh some support will be fun to watch in the ensuing bruhaha:  like Sarah Palin. He said  that her book, Going Rogue, was "One Of The Most Substantive Policy Books I've Read." Palin can't be ungrateful for such valuable praise by telling the country that he's a vicious, heartless scumbag. 

Within hours the circus will begin. How long this incident will remain on the front page will be up to Limbaugh and his response. He knows how to work a crowd.

Robertson Redux: Listen Kid, I Love You Even Though You're An Abomination!

It's a wonder that gay Americans are as patient as they are with some of these Religious Right wingers 

- Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks

Patient? Sorry Cenk, not me.  

I have a Google Blog Alert for Pat Robertson giving me the latest news and comments about our illustrious Religious Right Leader, so I was surprised to see that blog roundup smny.net was running comments on a piece that occurred 1 year ago. Then I read the comments. Take two:

Pat Robertson makes me feel ashamed of being a human being

and the more pertinent:

WOW The sad part is people believe this sh*t.

THE SAD PART

Asking for Pat Robertson's advice is like asking a parrot for directions to the nearest hospital: you might get an answer, just not the one you need right now.  Of course, Robertson is always full of it. Advice, that is. Ask me what else he's full of some other time. His book, Bring It On, is chock full of wisdom and knowledge no Christian household should be without. 

For example:

Just what is Islam and why do those people hate Americans so much?

Muhammad claimed to have had a series of dreams and visions in which a being he called "Allah," who was the moon god among the deities in Mecca, a city in Saudi Arabia where Muhammad's father was the keeper of three hundred sixty stones, including a black stone which was probably a piece of meteor... The moon god (the symbol of Islam is a crescent moon) supposedly appeared to Muhammad and revealed to him the tenets of Islam...The name [Koran] means "recitations," possibly because it was meant to be read aloud, but more likely because it was delivered orally by Muhammad to his friends, who wrote it down.

Huh?? WTF!?! Bring It On is proof that Robertson's senile imagination took hold at least  seven years ago (some say much earlier - about 1988 when he ran for President). For starters,  Islam is an Abrahamic religion and follows closely the precepts of Judaism in that it recognizes Adam, Abraham, Moses and (from Christianity) Jesus. The Jews were known as The People of the Book and the Bible was greatly revered and respected. The history of Muhammad's father is not known. Wherever Robertson got the keeper of the stones bit is anyone's guess. "Allah" is probably derived from Aramaic and means "one, incomparable God." The "moon god" did not appear and reveal secrets to Muhammad, but rather the angel Gabriel did. 

One more important note: reading about the Qu'ran will present a clearer picture of Islam's intents and purposes and will accentuate the similarities between Islam and Christianity, some things Robertson would never want you to know. Today's evangelizing Imam need  only a television camera and a suit to look like they're on a 700 Club of their own.  And after reading the Qu'ran, look to the Old Testament of the Bible, then ask yourself if the Abrahamic religion of Moses is still a "religion of peace."

Of course, even Robertson agrees that some of the questions he answers in his book are somewhat strange, but let's face it, anyone who asks Pat Robertson about anything these days is quite clueless. The man never ceases to amaze people which the broad spectrum of what he doesn't know. At the drop of a hat (or less), Robertson will tell you what's wrong with wearing a tattoo ("it's pagan and ugly") to declaring bankruptcy (it's Christian depending upon the amount).

Robertson never mitigates his tone either. Whether it's making pronouncements about  "Haiti's pact with the devil" or feminism turning women into lesbians and witches,  he never misses a beat. After all, he reasons, he's only the messenger of God and God's demands. And he doesn't care what people think about his advice. There is no quibbling about it. Robertson/God has spoken. 


So in The 700 Club segment in question,  Pat Robertson  took to the airwaves to mete out his sage advice to a mother whose question was:

How should we, as parents of a homosexual son, handle the ongoing challenges facing us such as staying true to our faith and following the commandment "love your neighbor as yourself?" This is very difficult for us. - Teresa.

Robertson then proceeded to question the age of the son - as if he knew what he was talking about and the age would determine his answer (Not!)


Then he pondered the idea of there being "real" or "fake" homosexuals by calling them "so called" homosexuals and trying to distinguish between "homosexuals because of biological problems" and the rest of us, who, in his view were "made homosexuals BECAUSE OF A COACH OR GUIDANCE COUNSELOR, or some other male figure who has abused them." Then came the hard line zinger:  tell him the "truth" because "I love you" and  "the Bible says that this is an abomination before God."  

"I mean if someone is on the way to hell, you have to rescue them." 

Recently, Pat Robertson gave advice to a woman whose husband was constantly flirting with other women. His advice? Make yourself prettier and get over it.

I've read just about every name people have called Pat Robertson and most of them banish him to some remote alternate reality reserved for the inane footnotes of history. The problem therein lies that while we should not listen to what he says, we need to listen to (and monitor) the people who DO listen to what he says.


And while there are some who think that Robertson's just another example of a snake oil salesman falling in love with his own snake oil,  there are too many people in America who touch their TV screens in hopes that Pat Robertson will heal their hemorrhoids. 

Only one? That's still too many. Remember:

WOW The sad part is people believe this sh*t.