HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!! FROM ME AND DOROTHY LAMOUR!

RANDOM THOUGHTS OF LOVE

Is That A Question - Or A Threat?

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Giant Smurf Pixies and The Christofascist Perspective

AVATAR has an abhorrent New Age, pagan, anti-capitalist worldview that promotes goddess worship and the destruction of the human race.

- NOT Pat Robertson

I must have been sleeping ... for the last eight weeks. I saw the movie Avatar (in 3-D) last night and it hit me as to how the Christofascists would spin it into something totally evil. Then I went home, googled some themes and, surprise! Some right-wing bloggers and the pope had raled against it in December! I don't know how any bloviating about it could have slipped by me: I don't remember it in any of my rss feeds. How could I have missed it? The biggest blockbuster (with the biggest budget) coupled with the theme of genocide by capitalism didn't get the usual 700 Club treatment.

And four weeks into its run, Avatar is still packing movie houses. People are seeing it twice, three times and telling people how wonderfully entertaining it is! They've been hypnotized by the artistry, blown away by their own violent reaction of empathy to an indigenous humanoid species (who, when you come to think of it, look like giant smurf pixies) and rooted against capitalism and the military mindset as never before.

So why hasn't the Christian Right conducted a huge protest ala The DaVinci Code? Is Avatar still playing in Alabama?

I checked. It is. In about ten neighborhood cineplexes.

Think of “Avatar” as “Death Wish 5” for leftists. A simplistic, revisionist revenge fantasy where if you freakin’ hate the bad guys (America), you’re able to forgive the by-the-numbers predictability of it all and still get off watching them get what they got coming.

John Nolte Big Hollywood

If you love the philosophy and culture of the Na'vi too much, you will be led into evil rather than away from it.

David Outen, Movieguide

The movie’s most seditious act is to evoke the specter of September 11, only with the terms reversed…Cameron’s willingness to question the sacred trauma of 9/11 is audacious, and his ability to do so in a $300 million tentpole movie is nothing short of shocking. If Avatar has a claim to revolution, that is where it lies.

Sam Adams, AV Club

We have made a religion out of entertainment.
And an entertainment out of religion.

Sorry folks, but that's as profound as I can get. For me, it's the only solution possible to the conundrum of Avatar's popularity in spite of Christofascists telling people that it's anti-American and, by extension, anti-Christian. What many right-wingers don't seem to understand is that folks consider it anti-American to keep entertainment at bay from the American public. You can take away the right of Americans to free speech, free worship, and even representation in government, but never, never attempt to take away America's God-given right to be entertained.

Never.

And in the melee that we call the culture war, entertainment (and James Cameron's Avatar) has won this battle.

Obama's Courage Comes At The Last Minute: A Tale of TWO Speeches

When you're constantly under fire and you have an ounce of courage in you, that courage is bound to sneak out once in a while ... and in the most unlikely of places.

Google a transcript of President Obama's National Day of Prayer Speech and you might be confused: the transcript given out to USA Today is very different than the transcript given out AFTER the Breakfast. Read the PDF given over to USA Today and you'll find these very important words: "As Prepared for Delivery." The one actually given was different in many ways.

It was longer
It didn't mention Jesus
It mentioned God more often
It's key words were "God" "Faith" "Without" and "Civility"
It mentioned Uganda It mentioned other religions
It referenced gay marriage

One critic: [on the pronunciation of the word "corpsman"] Obama doesn't say one unscripted word. There is obviously no one on his staff who knows this word or its correct pronunciation.

To the contrary: depending on the time when they were written, these transcripts show us that more often than not, President Obama does NOT depend upon "teleprompters" (as Fox News would have us believe) and that he might make drastic changes and additions at the last minute, while knowing that those changes may rile some of the audience.

And some of the audience took umbrage with his inclusion of other faiths.

It's ironic, isn't it, that USA Today got the wrong transcript while Pam's House Blend got an accurate one. And who besides USA Today got the "As Prepared For Delivery" outline? Lest we think that someone was being dishonest, I think that it was a mistake. But a very, very lucky mistake: had the sacred cows attending the NDOPB read it, Obama might have had some very uncivil responses hurled at him accompanied by scrambled (if not rotten) eggs.

A "CHRISTIANS ONLY" AFFAIR!:

from Beyond Religion:

Anyone can attend the National Day of Prayer, but only Christians can lead said prayers. So the National Day of Prayer is really the National Day of Christian Led Prayers to the Christian God who, because he is Jewish, is excluded from leading prayers during His Own National Day of Prayer. This is what really pisses me off— if Jesus Himself came down from heaven and asked to lead a prayer at any of today’s National Day of Prayer events he would be denied.

So which words do you think riled the Christians Only crowd? There are some people seething about terms, words, and ideologies. An article for FOXNews.com (don't worry, I won't go there) was titled The President's Prayer Breakfast Catastrophe By S.E. Cupp (who, BTW, has a new book coming out in April with the title: “Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity,” pass it on). In it, Ms. Cupp derides the President for many things, but what gets her most:

The worst misstep of today’s speech? When the president said that “God’s grace” is expressed “by Americans of every faith, and no faith, uniting around a common purpose, a higher purpose.” Uh, no it isn't -- unless my definition of atheism is different than his. Most atheists insist that God’s grace most certainly is not expressed through them, and that there are no “higher” purposes. While we may all come together for “a purpose” – like relief work in Haiti, poverty, AIDS, or world hunger – no atheist I know would consider this God's work.

Ms. Cupp runneth over with equally strident derisions throughout the rest of her piece, but always manages to communicate her main theme: This Is A Christians-Only Event and Don't You Forget It! There were other segments of the speech that riled the attendees:

...we all share a recognition -- one as old as time -- that a willingness to believe, an openness to grace, a commitment to prayer can bring sustenance to our lives.

"Willingness" and "openness" smack of lefty commie-pinko socialism!

God's grace, and the compassion and decency of the American people is expressed through ... evangelicals at World Relief. By the American Jewish World Service. By Hindu temples, and mainline Protestants, Catholic Relief Services, African American churches, the United Sikhs. By Americans of every faith, and no faith, uniting around a common purpose, a higher purpose.

How DARE he be so inclusive! How DARE he mention atheists and pagans and the like! THIS IS A CHRISTIAN EVENT!!

We see that in many conservative pastors who are helping lead the way to fix our broken immigration system. It's not what would be expected from them, and yet they recognize, in those immigrant families, the face of God.

Is he insinuating that our pastors have no compassion for illegals?

Yes, there are crimes of conscience that call us to action. Yes, there are causes that move our hearts and offenses that stir our souls. But progress doesn't come when we demonize opponents. It's not born in righteous spite. Progress comes when we open our hearts, when we extend our hands, when we recognize our common humanity.

Progress also comes when we open our wallets due to taxing us to death! "Demonize" our opponents? But they ARE demons!

we've turned the faith-based initiative around to find common ground among people of all beliefs, allowing them to make an impact in a way that's civil and respectful of difference and focused on what matters most.

There he goes again! Putting us on the par with every other religion! A subtle dig against us!

We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are -- whether it's here in the United States or, as Hillary mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda.

It's disgusting the way he throws bones to our religious community, then turns around and panders to the homosexual agenda!

Let's end with the kind words of Ms Cupp:

But rest assured, his friends in the liberal press – indeed, the ultimate Tower of Babel – will hail this speech as they do all the rest, and insist it proves he is indeed, as unnamed officials say, “a prayerful man.”

Known Diseases Attacking the Republican Brain: Prognosis Negative

The guy whose brain was scanned for the above picture doesn't have a chance of survival - at least not as an American human being. He has been diagnosed as one of those unfortunate beings who places in the lowest twenty percent of self-identified Republicans and as such suffers chronic attacks of bigotry, intolerance, self-righteousness, secessionist tendencies, overbearing (fake) patriotism, hard-boiled homophobia, and totally rank hypocrisy. His I.Q. has been reduced to a level below that of an amoeba. This reduction is brought on by irrational hatred of just about everything he is told to hate.

None of these terrible conditions have ever been treated simply because he was unaware of them. If caught in time (before the age of reason since these viruses attack rudimentary reasoning first) they might have been treated.

The most obvious sign that his mental capacities were impaired was when he stated on a Research 2000 survey that he thought Sarah Palin was better qualified for the position as President of the United States than Barack Obama. Examining researchers were horrified that this man's deterioration had been so long and advanced.

He also AGREED to all of the statements below. To be fair, they were put in question form, and some ideas were delineated by proper grammar, so they might have been put in a way that may have been difficult for him to understand.

NEGATIVE THOUGHTS AND IDEOLOGIES OF REPUBLICANS

Abortion is murder	76%
ACORN stole the election	21%
Congress shouldn't make it easier to join unions	68%
Contraceptives should be outlawed	31%
Creationism should be taught in public schools	77%
Gay couples should not have state or federal benefits	68%
Gays should not be allowed to serve in the military	55%
Gays should not teach in schools	73%
Illegal immigrants should not be allowed to work here	59%
Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation and heaven	67%
Marriages are equal partnerships	76%
Obama is a racist	31%
Obama is a Socialist	63%
Obama should be impeached	21%
Obama wants the terrorists to win	24%
Obama was not born in the United States	42%
Sarah Palin is more qualified that Barack Obama	53%
Sex education should not be taught in schools	51%
The birth control pill is abortion	34%
There should be no same-sex marriages	77%
Women should be able to work outside the home	86%
You support the death penalty	91%
Your state should secede from the U.S.	23%

Put together in a different graph, the poll shows us that there is the possibility that a substantial amount of people could have agreed with ALL of these statements. Let's look at it in another way:

Now let's see to possible variables: some Republicans did NOT agree with every statement. Some statements may not be considered too radical. Also, some statements do no necessarily mean that a person negates the opposite. E.G., it's possible that some Republicans believe that Creationism should be taught along WITH evolution.

Variables aside, however, the results of the poll (2,000 self-identified Republicans across the country and across demographics) show a very, very sczisophrenic group of people, the majority of whom agree with the statements that: a. abortion is murder, but they would voted for the death penalty, b. gay cannot teach in public schools, but some of them could serve in the military, c. purport to be patriots but some of them want to secede from the Union, and d. folks who think abortion is murder would also outlaw contraceptives - at a time when more "misbegotten" children are born than at any other time in history.

Indeed, the reasoning power of self-proclaimed conservatives has been on a downward spiral for the last generation. That may be why the number of self-proclaimed Republicans has decreased steadily since the 1960s. 55 million people in the U.S. were registered Republicans in 2004. It's doubtful that today's number is in the high 40's. Look at the bottom part of the graph and make some assumptions of our own: counting a wide range of variables, that bottom 20% can be honed down to 10%, don't you think? Is that fair?

Well, if it is, than 10% of people who identify as Republicans are: pro-Sarah Palin, anti-Obama people who will refuse to let their children have any sex education let alone purchase condoms. They will allow their women to work outside the home and think that their marriages are equal partnerships, although domestic violence cases continue to rise. They will certainly support the death penalty but at the same time chant that they are "pro life," without any qualms of hypocrisy. Some of them want gays to serve in the military more than they want them to teach in schools, but giving them any rights concerning marriage or spousal claims is beyond their comprehension. Finally, why any of them would think that Obama WANTS the terrorists to win is incomprehnsible. That statement alone defines the bottom 20% as irrational and, dare I say it, not qualified to vote.

And according to the least amount of calculation, there are approximately 4 MILLION people out there who have agreed to ALL OR MOST OF THE STATEMENTS. Four million. Who are voting irrationally. Who are amongst us. Who want their state to secede from the Union. Who do not like the rest of the people in the U.S. simply because they are not made of 100% whatever they label themselves as.

I'm sorry, but it looks to be true. Movements start with just a few people, but when movements begin to mass and affect the nation's psyche, then we all have to deal with them. Sorry, but at this time, to go on would make me seem like a fearmonger. Please, just think about it.

Drama Queens: New Research 2000 Poll Shows 30% of Republicans To Be Reactionary And Irrational

You've got to hand it to Christofascists and Right Wingnuts - they scream and rant and explode and stomp and faint and cry, well, they're just the greatest emoting animals on the planet! Their rhetoric makes every day Halloween with images of political demons and hellish moral catastrophes. They defend us all (yes, the sinners too!) with buzzwords that sting their enemies, like "God" "Bible" "Hell" "Satan" "Taxes" and "Tinky Winky!" They expand hyperboles, sometimes going on into infinity: "Throughout the history of mankind!" "They'll burn in hell - FOREVER!" "Your children and your children's children and their children's children will never, ever see the end of paying for this disastrous bill!"

They have deep-seated persecution complexes and are the biggest source of conspiracy theories. Meeting Democrats at a party makes them spout doom and gloom: they will never again see the return of Eisenhower's 50's or Reagan's 80's! Things were so much, much better!

Now a new poll conducted by Research 2000 released today shows us that:



39% of Republicans want President Obama to be impeached.

63% think Obama is a socialist.

52% do not believe Obama was born in the United States.

21% think ACORN stole the 2008 election --

AND EVEN SCARIER:

53% think Sarah Palin is more qualified than Obama to be president.

23% want to secede from the United States.

73% think gay people should not be allowed to teach in public schools.

31% want contraception to be outlawed

The poll

The last several weeks were particularly active and agitating weeks for Christofascists: the Prop 8 trial and, well, just about everything else.

The first one may not be classified as a "rant" because it's more like severe contempt, but it gets the party started:

On Haiti:

Right Wing Watch

Mark Krikorian, director of the predictably anti-immigrant Center for Immigration Studies (CIS)

My guess is that Haiti’s so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough.

Then, of course, there was Maggie Gallagher of NOM:

When this trial [Prop 8] began I told you: gay marriage activists were putting 7 million Californians on trial. But this week it got worse: They are clearly putting Christianity itself on trial. Why else have an expert read statements of Catholic and Southern Baptist doctrines into the record?

Bill Donahue, borrowing a trite and erroneous statement from Rick Warren:

Society cannot exist without families; families cannot exist without reproduction; reproduction cannot exist without a sexual union between a man and a woman; and every society in the history of the world has created an institution called marriage to provide for this end.

And Tony Perkins of Family Research Council showed us that when you're feeling frustrated and desperate, it's time to call the other side DESPERATE!

The desperation of the Left
January 22, 2010 | Share with Friends

Dear Daniel,

The Left is preparing a desperate 120-day ASSAULT on your values to appease its CULTURE OF DEATH, ANTI-MARRIAGE political base before the 2010 election campaigns begin.

And Family Research Council (FRC) is preparing to meet that BLITZ head-on.

Perkins' wild pronouncements included: (the good guys)

Reclaiming marriage
Defending innocent human life
Protecting children

(the bad guys)

radical agenda
Silencing faith
Silencing Christian and conservative radio

And ending with:

2010 is a turning-point year for faith, family, and freedom!!!.

And from another part of the globe, we have a drama queen's rant coming from the new archbishop of Belgium, Andre-Joseph Leonard:

"Homosexuality is not the same as normal sex in the same way that anorexia is not a normal appetite."

Drama. Irrational, baseless drama. Unfortunately their drama will create REAL drama.

Solar-Powered Bibles: Misguided Donations To Haiti or Spiritual Shysters?

Stop The Disaster Relief!
Haiti Is Saved!
With Solar-Powered Bibles!?!

I'm not making this stuff up! Our thanks to Dr. Valerie Tarico for letting us know about this latest humanitarian miracle!

From Huffington Post:

Solar Powered Bibles for Haiti:
Why Some Christians Feel Compelled to Exploit Disaster

Physicist Steven Weinberg once said, "With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

For solar powered Bibles or church-building to win out over food and medicine requires a religion that values conversion over compassion. But when we see this phenomenon at its worst, it is because someone in the thrall of a viral ideology has figured out some reverse alchemy that turns the precious gold of empathy into the lead of opportunism.

Dr. Tarico must have read my article about Pat Robertson and "God's Ambulance Chasers." Now I have a bona fide reference to turn to when arguing about some Christians' compassion. Even mainstream Christians are having a rough time over the "donations".

From Gizmodo

They claim that “the Proclaimer is self-powered and can play the Bible in the jungle, desert or… even on the moon!” I’m sure that it would be more helpful there than in Haiti. Because, in Haiti, a solar-powered Bible will be as helpful as the Genesis according to Eddie Izzard.

With the exception of some brave local affiliates and The Young Turks this situation has not gotten much coverage. I wonder why. Does the media think it's too lightweight? Or that any coverage would be insulting to Christians overall?

Perhaps it hasn't been covered because it would be an insult to Haitians. When the tsunami devastated southeast Asia years ago, Jerry Falwell dared to send 600,000 scriptural tracts and the response was a cold "thanks, but no thanks" by populations that were mostly Hindus and Muslims.

The maker and marketer of "The Proclaimer," Faith Comes By Hearing insists that relief groups are clamoring for it. The website shows a mass of people reaching for something being given out, but you can rest assured that it isn't an audio bible or that they're even near one.

Faith Comes By Hearing, an international Audio Bible group, is working with Convoy of Hope to provide spiritual relief in Haiti.

Unfortunately, Convoy of Hope would rather have the cash:

MSNBC:

Many agencies try to motivate donors with the mathematics of the situation. Jeff Nene, a spokesman for Convoy of Hope, a Springfield, Mo., agency that feeds 11,000 children a day in Haiti, urges cash donations that allow his group to buy in bulk from large suppliers and retailers.

“When people give $1, it translates into $7 in the field,” he said. “If they spend $5 for bottled water, that’s nice and it makes them feel good, but probably it costs us more than $5 to send it. If they give us $5, we can get $35 worth of water.”

Sending 600 "Proclaimers" to Haiti costs $92,000. I guess Faith Comes By Hearing wasn't motivated enough by the mathematics to just send cash.

Linked to the story of audio Bibles is another possible insult to the people of Haiti: Mars Hill Church ("The Cussing Pastor" Mark Driscoll). The goal of this Seattle megachurch and its crew is not to provide direct aid to the people of Haiti, but to help rebuild the churches as fast as possible. To some, this may be admirable, but to the people who are suffering for lack of food, water and medical treatment, rebuilding ministries and churches may be the furthest things from their minds. Just a guess.

Shysters?

I remember one week ago when George Bush told us to watch out for "shysters" when making donations to Haitian relief.While he certainly didn't mean people to steer clear of faith-based donations to Haiti, his comment could include "misguided" donations. We all have ideas as to what human beings need in situations like Haiti's, but I think that 99% of Americans will say that there's an order to the list: #1. Medical treatment and supplies. #2. Food. #3. Adequate shelter. Substituting any of these with Bibles, places of worship or ministers is not humane. AFTER these first three have been taken care of, yes, BUT NOT BEFORE.

Transporting, feeding, sheltering volunteers from ministries also takes money.

Update: The reaction to the donation (and the request for money to supply 3000 more - rough estimate: $460,000 or enough to feed 3200 people for one month) has been rather violent in tone, with some people sounding off on both sides:

- Maybe they can turn them into hotplates...

- Haitians aren't atheists like one outspoken DR poster. They have lost everything, including their Bibles.

- The inhuman wretches of this "church" should be marooned on an island with nothing but a pint of rum, one of their precious "proclaimers," and a pistol with one shot. The rum and pistol, in case you were curious, demonstrate that I am capable of more compassion than they could ever muster.

A good source to find out exactly what is needed is Good Intentions Are Not Enough.

There were supposed to be three videos accompanying this article, but I pulled on out at the last minute. It's a very sacrilegious take on the donation of solar-powered bibles featuring Hitler. It will probably be pulled from YouTube before long, if Faith Comes By Hearing has anything to say about it.

The first is a clip from The Young Turks which, in my opinion, is a "fair and balanced" attempt to look at the donation. The second is a gruesome look at the devastation citing a verse from the New Testament about the End Times as prophesied by Christ. It may help you decide whether or not the solar-powered Bibles are actually needed.

Just a thought.