Month: February 2012

Catholic Fascist Freak Rick Santorum | Pukes Over Separation of Church and State | Vomits On American Constitution

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Catholic Crusaders, Catholic Fascist Rick Santorum

Santorum: JFK’s Speech on Separation of Church and State Makes Me Want to Puke

Catholic Fascist Freak Rick Santorum | Pukes Over Separation of Church and State | Vomits On American Constitution
As Rick Santorum’s star continues to rise, his rhetoric just keeps getting more and more extreme. Today on ABC News, Santorum said that John F. Kennedy’s famous 1960 speech on the separation of church and state makes him want to puke.

And in Santorum’s opinion, every American should feel just as nauseated as he does.

GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum said today that watching John F. Kennedy’s speech to the Baptist ministers in Houston in 1960 made him want to “throw up.”

“To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes you throw up. What kind of country do we live that says only people of non-faith can come into the public square and make their case?” Santorum said.

“That makes me throw up and it should make every American who is seen from the president, someone who is now trying to tell people of faith that you will do what the government says, we are going to impose our values on you, not that you can’t come to the public square and argue against it, but now we’re going to turn around and say we’re going to impose our values from the government on people of faith, which of course is the next logical step when people of faith, at least according to John Kennedy, have no role in the public square,” he said. …

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute. The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country,” said Santorum. “This is the First Amendment. The First Amendment says the free exercise of religion. That means bringing everybody, people of faith and no faith, into the public square. Kennedy for the first time articulated the vision saying, no, ‘faith is not allowed in the public square. I will keep it separate.’ Go on and read the speech ‘I will have nothing to do with faith. I won’t consult with people of faith.’ It was an absolutist doctrine that was foreign at the time of 1960,” he said.

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Science News

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Science News

New observations from the Hubble Space Telescope reveal that the planet GJ 1214b, shown orbiting its star in this artist’s conception, is 6.5 times the size of Earth and composed mostly of water. Full Story David A. Aguilar

Eggs may be made throughout adulthoodThe discovery of stem cells in human ovaries suggests that women are not born with a lifetime’s supply of gametes.Read the full story. | Feb 26th 2012Found in: Genes & Cells

seperator

Wasps airlift annoying ants In a scrap over food, being big and able to fly is an advantage A matter of gravity Map of planetary field is sharpest ever Brain’s mirror system loves the robot Experiment may suggest why we feel sad for Wall-E
Carbon dioxide breaking down marine ecosystems
        2.19.12        –        Scientists capitalize on ‘natural’ experiment to chronicle how ecosystems will change as oceans continue to acidify        Found in: Environment
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Report Says Religious Right And Catholic Bishops Dominate ‘Faithful’ Lobbying

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Catholic Fascism, Catholic Fascist, Catholic Fascists, Catholic Power, Religious Fascism, Religious Fascists, Religious Reich, Religious Right

Church & State

Report Says Religious Right And Catholic Bishops Dominate ‘Faithful’ Lobbying

January 2012 People & Events

In D.C. A report issued by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life finds that religious advocacy groups in the nation’s capital are growing and that most of the largest organizations are affiliated with the Religious Right or the Roman Catholic hierarchy.

The November report, “Lobbying for the Faithful: Religious Advocacy Groups in Washington, D.C.,” surveyed more than 200 groups that engage in advocacy and/or lobbying in the nation’s capital. It found explosive growth in such groups, noting that the number of these organizations jumped from 67 in 1970 to 212 today.

Furthermore, the groups raise and spend significant sums of money. One of the largest religious advocacy organizations in Washington, for example, is the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has an annual budget of $26.6 million.

Other top spenders include the Family Research Council ($14.2 million), Concerned Women for America ($12.5 million), the National Right to Life Committee ($11.3 million) and Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink ($10.8 million).

Collectively, the 212 groups surveyed raise and spend $390 million a year.

Of the top 15 groups listed, 10 are Religious Right organizations or take stands in alignment with the Catholic hierarchy. Groups that failed to make the top 15 but that still have considerable budgets include the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission ($3.2 million), the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty ($2.2 million) and the Eagle Forum ($2.2 million).

While many of the groups listed are Christian, the report shows growth in the number of advocacy organizations affiliated with other religions. The biggest group on the list is the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, which has an annual budget of $87.8 million. The American Jewish Committee is fourth on the list at $13.3 million.

Other groups include the Muslim American Society ($3.9 million), the Muslim Public Affairs Council ($2.9 million) as well as groups representing Sikhs and Hindus.

The reports lists total budget figures for the groups surveyed. Not all of that money is spent on direct lobbying because the organizations advocate for their views in other ways. Still, the report is a good indication that the power of religious lobbies is in no way waning.

Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, told The Washington Post that the growth of religious lobbying groups has been nothing short of remarkable.

“Religious lobbyists used to be like subsistence farmers, and now it’s like agribusiness,” said Lynn.

In an article for the popular progressive website Alternet, Church & State Assistant Editor Rob Boston noted that Religious Right organizations can hardly claim to have no influence when so many of D.C.’s top religious lobbyists are in their camp.

“Right-wing religious groups may claim persecution, but the numbers tell a different story,” wrote Boston. “If you doubt this, just spend a day shadowing their employees in Congress, where, increasingly, they are greeted with warm smiles and open arms.”

The full report is available online at http://www.pewforum.org.

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Tzipi Livni Slams Lazy Jewish Haredim And Politicians Corrupted By Their Indolence

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Jewish Extremists, Lazy Haredi, Religious Kooks

Livni Slams Haredim And Pols Who Are Corrupted By Them

Tzipi Livni

“I believe Yeshivas have place in the state, but they have turned into a haven for people who don’t serve and don’t work, even though they can.”

Tzipi Livni

Tzipi Livni

Opposition leader Tzipi Livni of Kadima attacked haredim and members of her own party who are corrupted by them. This is how Ynet quotes her:

“These political tricks that are employed by my fellow party members, who take into account the haredi parties’ calculations… are invalid and compromise the people’s ability to unite. I believe Yeshivas have place in the state, but they have turned into a haven for people who don’t serve and don’t work, even though they can.”

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The Catholicization of the American Right

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Catholic Buffoons, Catholic Censorship, Catholic Crazies, Catholic Crusaders, Catholic Demagogues, Catholic Empire, Catholic Fanatic, Catholic Fanaticism, Catholic Fanatics, Catholic Fascism, Catholic Fascist, Catholic Fascists, Catholic Hitler, Catholic Inquisition, Catholic Lunatics, Catholic Power, Catholic Right, Catholic Supremacism

The Catholicization of the American Right

Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison

In the past two decades, the American religious Right has become increasingly Catholic. I mean that both literally and metaphorically. Literally, Catholic writers have emerged as intellectual leaders of the religious right in universities, the punditocracy, the press, and the courts, promoting an agenda that at its most theoretical involves a reclamation of the natural law tradition of Thomas Aquinas and at its most practical involves appeals to the kind of common-sense, “everybody knows,” or “it just is” arguments that have characterized opposition to same-sex marriage. There is nothing new about Catholic conservative intellectuals — think John Neuhaus, William F. Buckley, Jr. What is new is the prominence that these Catholic thinkers and leaders have come to have within the domains of American politics that are dominated by evangelical Protestants. Catholic intellectuals have become to the American Right what Jewish intellectuals once were to the American Left. In the academy, on the Court, Catholic intellectuals provide the theoretical discourse that shapes conservative arguments across a whole range of issues. Often these arguments have identifiable Thomistic or Jesuitical sources, but most of the time they enter the mainstream of political dialogue as simply “conservative.”

Meanwhile, in the realm of actual politics, Catholic politicians have emerged as leading figures in the religious conservative movement. Again, there is nothing new about Catholic political leaders nor Catholic politicians, although from Al Smith through John Kennedy they were more often Democrats than Republicans (Pat Buchanan is an exception). What is new is the ability of self-identified Catholic politicians to attract broad support from the among the evangelical Protestant religious right.

Rick Santorum is a case in point. Santorum’s is a specifically Catholic form of faith. The recent flap over contraception is only an example of a much deeper phenomenon. As observers have noted, he talks frequently about natural law, but rarely quotes the Bible directly — his arguments draw on a theologically informed view of the nature of the world, not a personal relationship with the text.

Indeed, in the past Santorum has been quite forthright about the fact that he does not look to the Bible for guidance, he relies quite properly on the guidance of the Church. There is obviously nothing wrong with that … but it sits very curiously with traditional Evangelical Protestant attitudes.

It is important not to overstate the significance of Santorum’s success. For all Santorum’s recent ascendancy, here is the breakdown of actual Republican votes cast thus far: Romney, 1,121,685; Gingrich, 838,825; Santorum, 431,926; Paul, 307,975. The count of awarded delegates produces a somewhat different result: Romney, 99; Santorum, 47; Gingrich, 32; Paul, 20 (The difference among those numbers reflects what political scientists call “malapportionment.”)  But two facts remain: one, with 1,144 delegates required for the nomination this thing is nowhere close to a resolution, and will not be even after Arizona, Michigan, and Super Tuesday; and, two, thus far in the Republican primary campaign, a majority of the votes cast have been for Catholic candidates. It’s not just Santorum; before him it was Gingrich, after all. At the national level, Catholic politicians have emerged as leading figures in the GOP… and  evangelical Protestants are flocking to follow their lead. Why?

The answer is not that evangelicals have become any less Protestant.  In a 2011 American Values Survey, 93% of white evangelicals say it is important for a candidate to have strong religious beliefs, versus 69% for Catholics saying the same thing. And 36% of white evangelical voters said they would be uncomfortable voting for a candidate who had strong religious beliefs that were different from their own, up from 29% in 2010, a change that may reflect the effects of a prominent Mormon candidate in the mix. In other words, evangelical voters care a great deal that a candidate’s religion accord with their own… and they are supporting Catholic candidates.  So what is going on?

To understand what is going on, we need to move from the role of Catholic individuals to a broader, more metaphorical idea of a Catholic style of political reasoning. “Catholic” in this exercise means responding to leadership; focusing on outcomes (think “doctrine of works”); and a Manichean view of the world in which the Church — as opposed to mere churches — stands as a bulwark against equally great opposing forces, so that outside the Church there can be only chaos. In this sense a Catholic Republican voter would be someone looking for a commanding general to lead Christian soldiers on a crusade, would care about a candidate’s policies rather than his soul, and respond to a call to view the Republican Party as the last bastion of civilisation in a howling wilderness.  Extending the metaphor, a “Protestant” conservative should reject the idea of leaders in favour of grass roots communalism; local self-direction in the congregationalist model; care about character and personal values more than specific stances or doctrines; and see the world as a mass of sinners who are to be judged  individually by the quality of their soul rather than by their enlistment in one party or the other.

In this metaphorical sense, the “Catholic” political style is strongest among evangelical Protestant voters, not actual Catholics. The eagerness of Catholic bishops to jump into a fight over contraception, for example, does not reflect that attitudes of their parishoners, but it gets strong support from evangelicals. Similarly, in one recent poll more than two-thirds of Catholic voters supported some sort of legal recognition of gay couples’ relationships, with 44% favoring same-sex marriage; in very sharp contrast, an outright majority of evangelical voters said there should be no legal recognition of a same-sex relationship.

In political terms, the evangelical Protestant Right has become Catholicized. They do not see Catholicism as a religion very different from their own because it leads to the same positions on the battlefield, call it Fortress GOP. It is a political worldview that is singularly well suited to negative politics. Who cares whether your guy is actually a bit of a nut-case or has some sleaze in his history if he will defeat the forces of darkness? Liberals tolerate venality in their candidates if they believe they will do good; “Catholic” conservatives tolerate venality if they believe their candidates will defeat evil.  (Ironically, all of this has moved the American religious Right in the direction of becoming more and more like a traditional European right-wing political movement, rather than a populist movement in the American Jacksonian tradition.)

In this metaphorical sense, the one person who did the most to push the Catholicization of conservative politics was Newt Gingrich back in the 1990s, long before his personal religious conversion. The most obvious illustration was the infamous GOPAC memorandum entitled “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control” that instructed Republican candidates to describe their Democratic opponents using words like “destructive,” “sick,” “pathetic,” “they/them,” “betray” and ” traitors” (relying on the research of the almost incomprehensibly amoral Frank Lutz). That kind of rhetoric and the scorched earth, anyone-who-is-not-with-must-be-destroyed tactics that go with it has been the defining style of Gingrich’s brand of politics ever since. And who Gingrich’s man in the Senate in those heady days of unabashed viciousness? Rick Santorum. And not just as an ally — Santorum was Gingrich’s hatchet man, the one who did the “dirty work” as one Republican congressman put it. Or in the words of a Republican staffer at the time, “[Santorum] is a Stepford wife to Gingrich… If you took the key out of his back, I’m not sure his lips would keep moving.” (These quotations appear in a 1995 Philadelphia Magazine article — you can find a link to the pdf file here

Can this carry Santorum to the nomination? Probably not. There are already signs that Santorum is slipping, as the extremity of his religious dogmatism becomes evident to voters, which may eventually force evangelicals to recognize the differences between the tenets of his faith and their own. The fit with Tea Party conservatives is even more tenuous, as that movement is an expression of a deeply “Protestant” brand of politics that sit uneasily with the rhetoric and worldview of “Catholic” conservatism. And Santorum has yet to be called out for his role in the 1990s; if people really want to vote for Gingrich’s old pet attack dog, why not simply vote for the owner? With time, Romney’s claim to be the only electable candidate (and adult) in the field may regain its traction. Meanwhile, Gingrich is looking ahead to the South, and possibly even as far as Texas and California. It has been a campaign of suddenly arising candidates who flamed out just as quickly, and Santorum shows signs of being the latest in that line — as I said, even after Super Tuesday there is going to be a long way to go.

There is the potential for deep divisions appearing in the GOP along an axis of “Protestant” versus “Catholic” religious conservatism. But regardless of what happens next, the rise of first Gingrich and now Santorum as the candidate of choice for the Religious Right is a profound sign of how Catholic the American religious right has become.

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Jewish Fist Fight | My Messiah is Bigger Than Yours

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Jewish Crazies, Jewish Fanatics, Religion Destroys the Brain, Religious Nuts

[They’re worse than fundi Muslim fanatics, imagine a world if these ultra Orthodox,  Jewish-religious crazies numbered in the 100’s of millions?!]

Video: Jewish Punch Up In 770

Fist Fight in 770 2-23-2011 Tzefatis v Americans

Students from Chabad‘s yeshiva in Tzefat, Israel – known for believing Chabad’s later rebbe, dead since 1994, is actually alive, well and living in 770 Eastern Parkway – spark more fighting in Chabad’s main synagogue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

PANDEMONIUM: The Inmates Run Wild in the Asylum

CROWN HEIGHTS [CHI] — No one ever believed 770 would devolve into utter chaos as it did this afternoon – not even the biggest sympathizers towards the Tzfati cause. Two members of the yeshiva’s hanholo, Rabbi Kuti Feldman and Rabbi Zalman Labkowski, were both physically and verbally attacked by the same hooligans who have been running wild and unrestrained these past few weeks.

Today’s episode began when Rabbi Labkowski was about to give his weekly Thursday Shiur at 1:30 in the downstairs of 770. About a half hour before the Shiur began, a Tzfati Bochur, Tzachi Cohen, stole the microphone that is usually used for the Shiur in retaliation for the revocation of one Tzfati’s visa.

Bochurim who wanted Rabbi Labkowski to give his shiur set up an alternative microphone – the Gabboim’s system (with their permission), and the Shiur began on time.

As the Shiur began, a Tzfati Bochur, Eliyahu Singawi – the one who had his visa revoked, ran over to the cabinet where the microphone system is kept and grabbed the wire, pulling it away in order to tear it.

[This point is where the first video begins]

Rabbi Kuti Feldman went after the Bochur to get the microphone back, and was attacked by a gaggle of Tzfatis who kicked, punched and slapped him, eliciting cries of outrage from the hundreds of people who were present in 770.

[This point is where the second video begins]

That wasn’t enough; another Bochur began yelling at Rabbi Labkowski, while spitting at him and throwing things. He shouted: ‘you should die today,’ ‘yemach shimcha,’ and ‘you menuval.’

According to witnesses, all this took place in the presence of Gabbai R. Menachem Gerelitzky and R. Yosef Braun, both of whom did not intervene.

One bochur told Crownheights.info that a Poilisher chossid happened to be present, and he asked him if this was regular occurrence in the shul, and why nobody did anything about it. The bochur couldn’t answer.

The incident concluded when Rabbi Labkowski left 770, and Shiur was canceled.

[Hat Tip: WSC.]

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Crazed Catholic Fascist Jeffrey Kuhner Blathers Absurdities Against Obama

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Anti-Semitism, Catholic Fascism, Catholic Fascist, Catholic Stooges, Catholic Supremacism, Fascism

Kuhner Claims Obama is ‘Our Lenin‘; Mefferd Afraid He’s More Like Stalin

Crazed Catholic Fascist Jeffrey Kuhner Blathers Absurdities Against Obama

Submitted by Miranda Blue on Wed, 02/22/2012 – 3:14pm

Right-wing columnist Jeffrey Kuhner visited the Janet Mefferd show earlier this week to discuss a recent column he wrote for the Washington Times, positing that “Obama is America’s Lenin.” In the column, Kuhner attacks the Obama administration’s recent birth control regulations, claiming that “like many secular leftists, [Obama] seeks to destroy Judeo-Christian civilization,” that he is “in the pocket of the pro-abortion feminist lobby,” and that “Mr. Obama is our first non-Christian president.”

Kuhner went into more detail in his interview with Mefferd, saying “I never thought I would see the day in America, that I would see the ugly specter of Leninism, the ugly specter of Marxism” and claiming that while the president is not a practicing Muslim he is “clearly a cultural Muslim.”

Mefferd not only agreed with Kuhner’s analysis, she was willing to go even farther, warning, “We know what Stalin ended up doing to millions and millions of people who would not bow the knee to him.”

Kuhner: This is a violation of the First Amendment. This is a violation of separation of church and state. This is a blatant war on Christianity. It is a war on our conscience rights. It is a war on our basic human freedoms. And I never thought I would see the day in America, that I would see the ugly specter of Leninism, the ugly specter of Marxism, where you now have state coercion of religion, where you have a blatant, flagrant attempt to purge Christianity from the public square, being so openly and blatantly embraced by the president of the United States.

Janet, if this mandate goes through, if Obamacare is not repealed, I believe it will break the back of our constitutional republic, I believe it will be the end of the First Amendment as we’ve known it, and I believe we are on a path towards radical, secular liberalism, which in many ways is just a form of cultural Marxism.

Obama is our Lenin. He is embarking on a cultural, social, political transformation of this nation, and that is why Christians of all denominations, of all faiths, must stand up and vote this man out of office in November.

Kuhner: So I believe he is somebody who’s the product of the multicultural, neo-Marxist left. He despises Christianity. He despises our biblical principles. He despises the civilizational roots of American society. And he’s also, I believe –and there’s no getting around this – not that he’s a practicing Muslim or a believing Muslim, but he’s clearly a cultural Muslim.

…

And Janet, I have to say this, many people don’t understand this aspect of communism. Communism never sought to completely eradicate religion. Even they knew that was impossible. What they said was this: ‘We don’t want it in public. If you want to worship, that’s fine, do it in your own home, do it in your own head, do it in your own bedroom. But don’t take your faith outside the home, it doesn’t belong here.’

Mefferd: Well, I tell you, that sounds awfully familiar, and we know what Stalin ended up doing to millions and millions of people who would not bow the knee to him.

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Is The Bible More Violent Than The Koran?

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Bible Violence

999-159

Dark passages

Does the harsh language in the Koran explain Islamic violence? Don’t answer till you’ve taken a look inside the Bible

By Philip Jenkins

WE HAVE A good idea what was passing through the minds of the Sept. 11 hijackers as they made their way to the airports.

Their Al Qaeda handlers had instructed them to meditate on al-Tawba and Anfal, two lengthy suras from the Koran, the holy scripture of Islam. The passages make for harrowing reading. God promises to “cast terror into the hearts of those who are bent on denying the truth; strike, then, their necks!” (Koran 8.12). God instructs his Muslim followers to kill unbelievers, to capture them, to ambush them (Koran 9.5). Everything contributes to advancing the holy goal: “Strike terror into God’s enemies, and your enemies” (Koran 8.60). Perhaps in their final moments, the hijackers took refuge in these words, in which God lauds acts of terror and massacre.

On a much lesser scale, others have used the words of the Koran to sanction violence. Even in cases of domestic violence and honor killing, perpetrators can find passages that seem to justify brutal acts (Koran 4.34).

Citing examples such as these, some Westerners argue that the Muslim scriptures themselves inspire terrorism, and drive violent jihad. Evangelist Franklin Graham has described his horror on finding so many Koranic passages that command the killing of infidels: the Koran, he thinks, “preaches violence.” Prominent conservatives Paul Weyrich and William Lind argued that “Islam is, quite simply, a religion of war,” and urged that Muslims be encouraged to leave US soil. Today, Dutch politician Geert Wilders faces trial for his film “Fitna,” in which he demands that the Koran be suppressed as the modern-day equivalent to Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.”

Even Westerners who have never opened the book  – especially such people, perhaps  – assume that the Koran is filled with calls for militarism and murder, and that those texts shape Islam.

Unconsciously, perhaps, many Christians consider Islam to be a kind of dark shadow of their own faith, with the ugly words of the Koran standing in absolute contrast to the scriptures they themselves cherish. In the minds of ordinary Christians  – and Jews  – the Koran teaches savagery and warfare, while the Bible offers a message of love, forgiveness, and charity. For the prophet Micah, God’s commands to his people are summarized in the words “act justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Christians recall the words of the dying Jesus: “Father, forgive them: they know not what they do.”

But in terms of ordering violence and bloodshed, any simplistic claim about the superiority of the Bible to the Koran would be wildly wrong. In fact, the Bible overflows with “texts of terror,” to borrow a phrase coined by the American theologian Phyllis Trible. The Bible contains far more verses praising or urging bloodshed than does the Koran, and biblical violence is often far more extreme, and marked by more indiscriminate savagery. The Koran often urges believers to fight, yet it also commands that enemies be shown mercy when they surrender. Some frightful portions of the Bible, by contrast, go much further in ordering the total extermination of enemies, of whole families and races  – of men, women, and children, and even their livestock, with no quarter granted. One cherished psalm (137) begins with the lovely line, “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept”; it ends by blessing anyone who would seize Babylon’s infants and smash their skulls against the rocks.

To say that terrorists can find religious texts to justify their acts does not mean that their violence actually grows from those scriptural roots. Indeed, such an assumption itself is based on the crude fundamentalist formulation that everything in a given religion must somehow be authorized in scripture. The difference between the Bible and the Koran is not that one book teaches love while the other proclaims warfare and terrorism, rather it is a matter of how the works are read. Yes, the Koran has been ransacked to supply texts authorizing murder, but so has the Bible

If Christians or Jews want to point to violent parts of the Koran and suggest that those elements taint the whole religion, they open themselves to the obvious question: what about their own faiths? If the founding text shapes the whole religion, then Judaism and Christianity deserve the utmost condemnation as religions of savagery. Of course, they are no such thing; nor is Islam.

But the implications run still deeper. All faiths contain within them some elements that are considered disturbing or unacceptable to modern eyes; all must confront the problem of absorbing and reconciling those troubling texts or doctrines. In some cases, religions evolve to the point where the ugly texts so fade into obscurity that ordinary believers scarcely acknowledge their existence, or at least deny them the slightest authority in the modern world. In other cases, the troubling words remain dormant, but can return to life in conditions of extreme stress and conflict. Texts, like people, can live or die. This whole process of forgetting and remembering, of growing beyond the harsh words found in a text, is one of the critical questions that all religions must learn to address.

Faithful Muslims believe that the Koran is the inspired word of God, delivered verbatim through the prophet Mohammed. Non-Muslims, of course, see the text as the work of human hands, whether of Mohammed himself or of schools of his early followers. But whichever view we take, the Koran as it stands claims to speak in God’s voice. That is one of the great differences between the Bible and the Koran. Even for dedicated fundamentalists, inspired Bible passages come through the pen of a venerated historical individual, whether it’s the Prophet Isaiah or the Apostle Paul, and that leaves open some chance of blaming embarrassing views on that person’s own prejudices. The Koran gives no such option: For believers, every word in the text  – however horrendous a passage may sound to modern ears  – came directly from God.

We don’t have to range too far to find passages that horrify. The Koran warns, “Those who make war against God and his apostle . . . shall be put to death or crucified” (Koran 5.33). Other passages are equally threatening, though they usually have to be wrenched out of context to achieve this effect. One text from Sura (Chapter) 47 begins “O true believers, when you encounter the unbelievers, strike off their heads.”

But in such matters, the Bible too has plenty of passages that read painfully today. Tales of war and assassination pervade the four books of Samuel and Kings, where it is hard to avoid verses justifying the destruction of God’s enemies. In a standard English translation of the Old Testament, the words “war” and “battle” each occur more than 300 times, not to mention all the bindings, beheadings, and rapes.

The richest harvest of gore comes from the books that tell the story of the Children of Israel after their escape from Egypt, as they take over their new land in Canaan. These events are foreshadowed in the book of Deuteronomy, in which God proclaims “I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh” (Deut. 32:42). We then turn to the full orgy of militarism, enslavement, and race war in the Books of Joshua and Judges. Moses himself reputedly authorized this campaign when he told his followers that, once they reached Canaan, they must annihilate all the peoples they find in the cities specially reserved for them (Deut. 20: 16-18).

Joshua, Moses’s successor, proves an apt pupil. When he conquers the city of Ai, God commands that he take away the livestock and the loot, while altogether exterminating the inhabitants, and he duly does this (Joshua 8). When he defeats and captures five kings, he murders his prisoners of war, either by hanging or crucifixion. (Joshua 10). Nor is there any suggestion that the Canaanites and their kin were targeted for destruction because they were uniquely evil or treacherous: They happened to be on the wrong land at the wrong time. And Joshua himself was by no means alone. In Judges again, other stories tell of the complete extermination of tribes with the deliberate goal of ending their genetic lines.

In modern times, we would call this genocide. If the forces of Joshua and his successor judges committed their acts in the modern world, then observers would not hesitate to speak of war crimes. They would draw comparisons with the notorious guerrilla armies of Uganda and the Congo, groups like the appalling Lord’s Resistance Army. By comparison, the Koranic rules of war were, by the standards of their time, quite civilized. Mohammed wanted to win over his enemies, not slaughter them.

Not only do the Israelites in the Bible commit repeated acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing, but they do so under direct divine command. According to the first book of Samuel, God orders King Saul to strike at the Amalekite people, killing every man, woman, and child, and even wiping out their livestock (1 Samuel 15:2-3). And it is this final detail that proves Saul’s undoing, as he keeps some of the animals, and thereby earns a scolding from the prophet Samuel. Fortunately, Saul repents, and symbolizes his regrets by dismembering the captured enemy king. Morality triumphs.

The Bible also alleges divine approval of racism and segregation. If you had to choose the single biblical story that most conspicuously outrages modern sentiment, it might well be the tale of Phinehas, a story that remains unknown to most Christian readers today (Numbers 25: 1-15). The story begins when the children of Israel are threatened by a plague. Phinehas, however, shrewdly identifies the cause of God’s anger: God is outraged at the fact that a Hebrew man has found a wife among the people of Midian, and through her has imported an alien religion. Phinehas slaughters the offending couple  – and, mollified, God ends the plague and blesses Phinehas and his descendants. Modern American racists love this passage. In 1990, Richard Kelly Hoskins used the story as the basis for his manifesto “Vigilantes of Christendom.” Hoskins advocated the creation of a new order of militant white supremacists, the Phineas Priesthood, and since then a number of groups have assumed this title, claiming Phinehas as the justification for terrorist attacks on mixed-race couples and abortion clinics.

Modern Christians who believe the Bible offers only a message of love and forgiveness are usually thinking only of the New Testament. Certainly, the New Testament contains far fewer injunctions to kill or segregate. Yet it has its own troublesome passages, especially when the Gospel of John expresses such hostility to the Ioudaioi, a Greek word that usually translates as “Jews.” Ioudaioi plan to stone Jesus, they plot to kill him; in turn, Jesus calls them liars, children of the Devil.

Various authorities approach the word differently: I might prefer, for instance, to interpret it as “followers of the oppressive Judean religious elite,” Or perhaps “Judeans.” But in practice, any reputable translation has to use the simple and familiar word, “Jew,” so that we read about the disciples hiding out after the Crucifixion, huddled in a room that is locked “for fear of the Jews.” So harsh do these words sound to post-Holocaust ears that some churches exclude them from public reading.

Commands to kill, to commit ethnic cleansing, to institutionalize segregation, to hate and fear other races and religions . . . all are in the Bible, and occur with a far greater frequency than in the Koran. At every stage, we can argue what the passages in question mean, and certainly whether they should have any relevance for later ages. But the fact remains that the words are there, and their inclusion in the scripture means that they are, literally, canonized, no less than in the Muslim scripture.

Whether they are used or not depends on wider social attitudes. When America entered the First World War, for instance, firebrand preachers drew heavily on Jesus’ warning that he came not to bring peace, but a sword. As it stands, that is not much of a text of terror, but if one is searching desperately for a weapon-related verse, it will serve to justify what people are going to do anyway

Interpretation is all, and that changes over time. Religions have their core values, their non-negotiable truths, but they also surround themselves with many stories not essential to the message. Any religion that exists over long eras absorbs many of the ideas and beliefs of the community in which it finds itself, and reflects those in its writings. Over time, thinkers and theologians reject or underplay those doctrines and texts that contradict the underlying principles of the faith as it develops. However strong the textual traditions justifying war and conflict, believers come instead to stress love and justice. Of course Muslim societies throughout history have engaged in jihad, in holy war, and have found textual warrant so to do. But over time, other potent strains in the religion moved away from literal warfare. However strong the calls to jihad, struggle, in Islamic thought, the hugely influential Sufi orders taught that the real struggle was the inner battle to control one’s sinful human instincts, and this mattered vastly more than any pathetic clash of swords and spears. The Greater Jihad is one fought in the soul.

Often, such reforming thinkers are so successful that the troublesome words fade utterly from popular consciousness, even among believers who think of themselves as true fundamentalists. Most Christian and Jewish believers, even those who are moderately literate in scriptural terms, read their own texts extraordinarily selectively. How many Christian preachers would today find spiritual sustenance in Joshua’s massacres? How many American Christians know that the New Testament demands that women cover their hair, at least in church settings, and that Paul’s Epistles include more detailed rules on the subject than anything written in the Koran? This kind of holy amnesia is a basic component of religious development. It does not imply rejecting scriptures, but rather reading them in the total context of the religion as it progresses through history.

Alternatively, one can choose to deny that historical experience, and seize on any available word or verse that authorizes the violence that is already taking place  – but once someone has decided to do that, it scarcely matters what the text actually says.

Philip Jenkins teaches at Penn State University. He is the author of “The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia — and How It Died.”

 

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Cardinals Wear Scarlet to Show They Are Willing to Shed Blood For The Catholic Faith

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Catholic Fanaticism, Catholic Fascism

The following appeared in the Wall Street Journal today (h/t Ophelia Benson, Butterflies and Wheels):-

Cardinal-designate speaks of joy, love – and blood

Associated Press VATICAN CITY  — The top U.S. bishop, Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, has told a meeting of the pope and his fellow cardinals that they must spread the faith with joy, love — and blood if necessary.

Dolan, archbishop of New York, gave the keynote address Friday to a gathering of the cardinals who will participate in the ceremony Saturday to bring Dolan and 21 other cardinals into the elite men’s club that will elect the next pope.

Dolan said the Vatican No. 2 had told him to speak about spreading the faith in a secular world since New York was the “capital of a secular culture.” Dolan said while there’s “graphic secularism” in the Big Apple, “it is also a very religious city.”

Cardinals Wear Scarlet to Show They Are Willing to Shed Blood For The Catholic Faith.

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Fake Satanic Muslim Apocalypse Averted | Will Catholic Fascist Geert Wilders Now Save The World From The Jewish Antichrist?!

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Catholic Fascism, EDL, Euro Fascists, Fascism, Geert Wilders, Gert Wilders, Right Wing

Fake Satanic Muslim Apocalypse Averted | Will Catholic Fascist Geert Wilders Now Save The World From The Jewish Antichrist?!

Hate Peddler Geert Wilders’ Hate: No Longer Limited To Muslims

Via:- Ilisha

Catholic Fascist Geert Wilders Tickling His Brain?

Far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders is notorious for his hatred of Islam.

He has compared the Qur’an to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kamf, referred to the Prophet Muhammad as “the devil,” and warned of a “tsunami of Islamization” in Europe. His Party for Freedom (PVV) rose to third-place status by capitalizing on economic crisis and social anxiety by scapegoating Muslim immigrants, who he has likened to Nazis.

The shock value has worn off, and support for his political party is waning.

So what’s a hatemonger to do?

Wilders has declared a new enemy: Central and Eastern Europeans.  His far-right Freedom Party has captured headlines by launching a website where visitors can lodge complaints about fellow Europeans working in the Netherlands:

Reporting Central and Eastern Europeans

Since May 1, 2007 there is free movement of workers between the Netherlands and eight countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries. At present the estimates to the number of people from these countries, which resides in the Netherlands, apart from 200,000 to 350,000 people. As one of the few parties, the Freedom Party from the beginning against the opening of the labor market to Poland and other CEE nationals. Given all the problems associated with the massive arrival of especially Poland, is that attitude materialized. Recently, the PVV whatsoever against further opening of the labor market for Romanians and Bulgarians voted.

This massive labor migration leads to many problems, nuisance, pollution, displacement and integration in the labor and housing problems. For many people, these things a serious problem. Complaints are often not reported, because the idea that nothing is done.

Do you have trouble of CEE nationals? Or have you lost your job on a Pole, Bulgarian, Romanian or other Central or Eastern European? We would like to hear. The Freedom Party has a platform on this website to your symptoms to report. These complaints, we will identify and offer the results to the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment.

What’s this got to do with Muslims?

The move clearly demonstrates what we’ve always known.  Wilders is an opportunist and a hardcore bigot.

In the current climate, Islamophobia has been normalized to some degree, but the more hatemongers expose their ties to racism, xenophobia, and antisemitism, the more likely they are to  be relegated to the fringe by mainstream society.

Wilders’ antics have already sparked a firestorm of protest, and ambassadors from ten central and east European countries have complained. In response, the European Parliament has scheduled a debate on the topic next month.

Wilders boasted the site already had 40,000 responses and  dismissed the controversy telling reporters:

My reaction to the ambassadors is: Mind your own business. This has nothing to do with your country. We are a sovereign country, we are a democratic political party and we voice the concerns of many Dutchmen.

Opening a new front will undoubtedly dilute Wilders’ campaign to vilify Islam as a “unique threat” to Europe, and may further tarnish the country’s international reputation.  Whether the stunt will ultimately boost his popularity or exhaust Dutch tolerance for his peculiar brand far-right fear mongering remains to be seen.

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Sting a Muslim for Jesus | FBI Cracks Terror Plot It Created

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Fake Muslims, Fake Terrorists, False Flag, FBI Manufactured Terrorist

FBI Breaks Up Latest Terrorist Plot That It Created

Via Jim Newell

In a super-neato sting operation today, the FBI totally intercepted a Muslim Terrorist wearing a suicide bomb vest en route to the Capitol, to blow it up. Sucker! Caught you! Go eat an Abortionplex-sized bag of dicks, guy! (But really, thank you for taking all of the pretend bombs our agents gave you and going with them on field trips to test explosives and all the other things we tricked you into doing so we could arrest you.)

The FBI is masterful when it comes to thwarting their own baroque terrorist plots in dramatic fashion at the very last minute, just as their scripts instruct them to do. The Feds found today’s lucky arrestee, a 29-year-old Moroccan, about a year ago and thought, Sure, this one looks Muslim enough to me, he’ll do… now let’s start brainstorming a plot and getting him all the fake bombs and training and support he needs so we can arrest him in a year.

(WASHINGTON) — A 29-year-old Moroccan man was arrested Friday near the U.S. Capitol as he was planning to detonate what he thought was a suicide vest, given to him by FBI undercover operatives, said police and government officials. Amine El Khalifi of Alexandria, Va., was taken into custody with an inoperable gun and inert explosives, according to a counterterrorism official.

El Khalifi expressed interest in killing at least 30 people and considered targeting a building in Alexandria and a restaurant, synagogue and a place where military personnel gather in Washington before he settled on the Capitol after canvassing that area a couple of times, the counterterrorism official said. During the investigation, the official said, El Khalifi went with undercover operatives to a quarry in the Washington area to detonate explosives.

El Khalifi came to the U.S. when he was 16 years old and is unemployed and not believed to be associated with al-Qaeda. He had been under investigation for about a year and had overstayed his visitor visa for years, according to the counterterrorism official and a government official briefed on the matter who spoke on a condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Two people briefed on the matter told The Associated Press he was not arrested on the Capitol grounds, and the FBI has had him under surveillance around the clock for several weeks.

The Washington Post has an especially chilling anecdote indicating nothing, from the Terrorist’s ex-landlord:

He said he evicted Khalifi about a year ago.

“He was suspicious,” said Dynda. “He was getting mysterious packages labeled “book,” but I didn’t think there were books in them.”

Savvy eye, Dynda. There weren’t any books in there. Those packages were filled with all of the cool terrorist presents that the FBI kept sending him.

All in all, another magnificent production — four stars. Will this be the year that the FBI *finally* wins that Best Director statuette it’s coveted for so long? Ugh, let’s not get into studio politics…

Uh oh! Is the fake terrorist scaring you, teevee flaphead?

Children are so impressionable.

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Catholic Butthurt | Pop Star Possessed by Satan Say Catholic Fascists

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Catholic Crazies, Catholic Fascists, Catholic League

Nicki Minaj, Satan and the Phenomenon of Christian Butthurt

If you didn’t watch the Grammy Awards on Sunday night, chances are you’ve probably heard about what you missed — Nicki Minaj’s bizarre performance of “Roman Holiday.”  I’m not going to take the time to describe the performance except to say that it resembled my idea of a lavish musical production of the 1974 Italian demon possession film Beyond the Door (which was a quick, tacky rip-off of the far superior 1973 film The Exorcist) as directed by Baz Lurhmann.  If you haven’t seen it, please watch the video here.

I rarely watch the Grammy Awards because music is something I prefer to listen to rather than watch on TV, and much of what makes up the show holds no interest for me.  But I watched this year because there were some performers I wanted to see — Adelle’s return after throat surgery and performances by Paul McCartney, Glenn Campbell (who won’t be with us much longer) and the Beach Boys.  I’m not a fan of Nicki Minaj, and in spite of its theatrical and pyrotechnical extravagance, I found the performance to be a big steaming bowl of nothing.  But as I watched it, I laughed loudly, turned to my wife and said, “Boy, this is going to infuriate people!”

I was right, of course, because as I began writing this only two hours after the west coast broadcast of the 54th Grammy Awards, the wailing and gnashing of teeth had already started on the internet.  The first sign of it I encountered was in the Washington Post, which listed several comments from Nicki Minaj fans on Twitter.  Here are a few samples:

“I don’t like the fact that Nicki Minaj brought religion into her song #notokay”

“I was expecting LL Cool J to do another Prayer after Nicki Minaj’s demonic performance. I still wish he had.”

“Open with a prayer to the Lord, end with an exorcism? SMH #Grammys.”

From there, I went to a website called DividedStates.com for an article titled “Nicki Minaj Performs Satanic Ritual No. 2 at Grammy’s to Top Satanic Superbowl Show.”

Wait … you didn’t know that Madonna’s halftime show at the Super Bowl was a Satanic ritual?  Whether or not the Super Bowl was Satanic probably depends on which team you were rooting for.  But it also depends on whether or not you embrace the notion that the music industry — like all of mass media in the United States and elsewhere — is (and has been for some time) under the control of the Illuminati — the deeply secret, all-seeing, all-knowing, all-controlling, ultra-wealthy elite who either worship Satan, Moloch, or are reptilian aliens from outer space, depending on who you talk to — and is using the music industry to brainwash the masses and condition them for the coming antichrist dictatorship using subliminal messages, music videos filled with Satanic imagery and rituals, and songs that promote sex, drugs, sadomasochism, mind control, and check kiting … or something like that.  If you’d like to learn more about all of this, I refer you to The Vigilant Citizen, which is one of the most readable websites on the subject.

Back to the article on DividedStates.com.  It wastes no time in making precisely the kind of claims I expected:

“Nicki’s disturbing performance at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards was a blatant attack on the Catholic church.  No one is sure why she has such disdain for the Church but many actually believe she is simply evil and it [sic] reflected in everything she does and every song she sings and every performance she gives.”

Never mind that it’s the 54th Grammy Awards and that what “many actually believe” is given the weight of factual information here and that the article quotes people overheard at the Grammy Awards by an unidentified source (Catholic spies?  A spectral virgin Mary?).  The significant part of that paragraph is “a blatant attack on the Catholic church.”  That leads us to this later paragraph:

“If the stage was [sic] set as a Jewish Holocaust, or a black slavery set or some kind of mockery of Muhammad and Islam glorifying slave owners, there would be outrage.  But because its [sic] the Catholic church that Minaj is mocking, somehow it’s allowed.”

Now “outraged Catholics” are calling for a boycott of CBS because of Minaj’s performance.  Beneath the linked article at IndustryAllAccess.com, there is a comment from a reader identified as Dolores Ziga:

“shame on cbs..i would like them to put something offending muslims or another religion on ..i bet they wont..boycott cbs and nikki [sic].”

As expected, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League disagrees.  An article on the Catholic League’s website asks, “Is Nicki Minaj Possessed?”  In it, Donohue states:

“It’s bad enough that Catholics have to fight for their rights vis-à-vis a hostile administration in Washington without also having to fend off attacks in the entertainment industry.  The net effect, however, will only embolden Catholics, as well as their friends in other faith communities. … Whether Minaj is possessed is surely an open question, but what is not in doubt is the irresponsibility of The Recording Academy.  Never would they allow an artist to insult Judaism or Islam.”

Because as we all know, it’s practically illegal to be a Catholic in the United States today.  And if you think that, I have a bridge to sell you.  On Neptune.

As I traveled around the internet reading the reactions to Minaj’s performance, I was curious to know what else these websites had to say about religion.  I was especially curious to see if they had any coverage of the seemingly endless sex scandal in which the Catholic church had been mired for so long.  The open question in my mind was not whether or not Nicki Minaj is possessed, but whether or not the same outrage expressed over her performance had been expressed over the fact that the Catholic church has been protecting child rapists and even blaming everyone from the victims to gay people in its ongoing efforts to dodge responsibility for it horrifying actions for decades now (that we know of).  Guess what I found.  That’s right.  Not a damned thing.

Pay no attention to that child rapist behind the curtain!  We are the Great and Powerful Catholic Church and we have been OFFENDED by a musical performance!

Probably the most commonly found word in the responses to Minaj’s song is “disrespected.”  She disrespected Catholics.  That was her big crime.

The other common response is to claim that if the show had offended Jews or Muslims, if it had mocked the Holocaust or the slavery of black people in America’s past, it would not have been allowed.

This isn’t the first time such baseless and, frankly, crazy claims have been thrown at something that offends Catholics in particular or Christians in general.  It seems a lot of Christians believe that when someone disrespects or insults their religion or simply does something that they don’t like, it is an offense on the same moral level as mocking genocide and human slavery.  This boggles the minds of those of us who do not share that belief.

Expressing a negative opinion about a religion is not even in the same galaxy as mocking the systematic slaughter of millions of people, even if millions of people express that negative opinion.  That’s because it’s an opinion and not a network of gas chambers.  Having no respect for a religion does not breathe the same air as mocking the selling of human beings into slavery to live as cattle owned by other human beings.

And that performance does not make Nicki Minaj evil.  Hey, I know absolutely nothing about Minaj — for all I know, she tortures kittens and trips old people on the sidewalk.  If either of those were true, then that would make her a bad person.  Performing a musical number in which she portrays a young woman possessed by a demon while a priest and altar boys cavort on stage, no matter how weird or spooky or even bad it might have been, does not.

Let’s all keep in mind exactly what allegedly has been “disrespected” here.  We’re talking about the biggest organization of child rapists and their protectors on.  The.  PLANET.  Unlike the secretive cabal of Satanists that some believe have covertly taken control of the music industry, the Roman Catholic church’s apparent fondness for child rape is pretty much out in the open these days.  The pedophile is out of the bag now and we all know what the Catholic church is up to, and that is only made worse by its appalling attempts to dance around responsibility for its crimes.  None of this is speculation.  We now know — thanks to a damning 1997 letter from the Vatican — that the Catholic church enforces a global policy of protecting its child rapists from the law.

Right now, AIDS is leaving a swath of dying and dead people in its wake in Africa.  It is strangling the continent.  The Catholic church, however, has decided to keep telling African people not to use condoms because that’s part of Catholic dogma.  According to a 2010 article in the UK Guardian, this means the Catholic church is not just a religion — it has become “a major global health problem.”

Right now, the Catholic church in particular and Christianity in general is engaged in an all-out war against women — not Catholic or Christian women but all women.  In addition to its constant efforts to oppose legal abortion, Christians are actively fighting the availability of affordable birth control and health care for women.  They don’t care that not all of these women believe as they do — they insist that all women of all religious beliefs — and no religious beliefs — bend to their religious laws.

In return for its demands that everyone live according to its beliefs, the Catholic church in particular and Christianity in general also demand that everyone remain absolutely respectful of everything they do, that everyone refrain from questioning or criticizing their activities, no matter how illegal or horrifying, because they have god on their side.  It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe in their god — if you have nothing to good to say about their religion, you are expected to remain silent.  This attitude is found throughout Christianity in the United States, where Christians are currently in a perpetual state of being butthurt because everyone in the country simply refuses to behave precisely as they wish.

Remember the comment by Dolores Ziga at IndustryAllAccess.com?  She wrote, “I would like them to put something offending Muslims or another religion on.”  This is a common attitude.  If Christians are offended by something, they then express a passionate desire for other religions to be offended by something — after all, that would be the fair thing, right? — and they get angry if they aren’t.  It’s kind of a “do unto others as we think you’re doing unto us” thing.  They’re keeping score.  Of course, this attitude of fairness vanishes in a puff of spoiled, whining, righteous indignation whenever an attempt is made to be inclusive of all beliefs in the United States.  The law requires that religious displays on government property — during the holidays, for example — be open to all religions or no religions.  That pisses Christians off.  They see themselves as the rulers of the roost in the U.S.  They believe this is their turf and they don’t want it sullied by any false religions with their false gods, or by secularists with their godlessness.

Robert A. Heinlein wrote, “Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.”  Preventing that requires constant vigilance in a free society — vigilance that, over the decades, has not been maintained here in the United States of Jesus, where Christians are still — in 2012, for crying out loud! — trying to control everyone, whether they are Christian or not.  They are still able to ask, out loud and with a straight face, if someone is possessed by demons.  They are still oblivious — intentionally or otherwise — to the problems and pain their religion causes for so many, of the lives it damages, and even the lives it ends in certain parts of the world.

This is due in part to the unwritten law that still remains in effect in the United States.  It is slowly weakening, but it has not yet gone away.  That unwritten law states that it is absolutely forbidden to question or criticize religion, that blind faith in unprovable invisible beings and forces, alternate histories, and anti-scientific explanations for the origins of human beings, the earth and the universe is a virtuous and sacred thing that must always be shown the utmost respect and remain above reproach.  According to this unwritten law, religious believers are like sleepwalkers and it would be wrong to wake them in the course of their somnambulistic wanderings.

Look where this unwritten law has gotten us.  We currently have Christian presidential candidates who openly believe that birth control should be outlawed, that sexual activity should be legally regulated, that gay people should be jailed for their sexuality, that women should shut the hell up and stay in the kitchen where they belong, that miscarriages should be investigated to see if they were induced.  This isn’t just annoying.  This isn’t just troubling.  This is fucking insanity!  The United States is a nation currently undergoing what appears to be a nervous breakdown!  And it’s a breakdown that might have been prevented had it not been for that unwritten law.

I do not recognize the authority of that unwritten law and I have no problem questioning, criticizing and even ridiculing the most destructive and dehumanizing force on the face of the earth.  So I would like the attention of outraged Christians for a moment.  I would like to have a word with you about Nicki Minaj’s performance.

There is a very good reason why Minaj did what she did Sunday night, why other artists have done similar things in the past and why others will continue to do them in the future.  She did it for attention, to cause controversy, to sell records, and to get publicity, and to achieve those things, she focused her performance on Catholicism because Christians are one of the most effective free marketing tools in the world.

Immediately after Minaj’s performance Sunday night — hell, during her performance! — Christians began promoting it on the internet.  Oh, sure, they were complaining about it, venting what they perceived to be righteous indignation.  But in doing that, they were promoting the performance.  One of the most beloved singers in the world died the night before the Grammy Awards, but what was everyone talking about?  Nicki Minaj.  Why?  Because Catholics in particular and Christians in general made sure of it.

Although you don’t seem to be aware of it, your religious beliefs combined with your attitude of entitlement in the United States make you extremely easy to manipulate and use.  Even I do it — just for amusement!  For example, I have, in the past, calculated my purchase in a store to total $6.66 just to watch the cashier freak the hell out because — well, I don’t know, maybe because he or she thinks the cash register is the antichrist.  I was raised a Christian.  I know where all your buttons are and how to push them, and so do a lot of other people, because your belief not only makes you easy to manipulate and extremely predictable — it makes you pretty damned funny.  That’s right, funny.  If you don’t want people to mock your religion, quit being so damned funny.

How can you do this?  By wising up!  Stop taking the bait!  Stop doing what most people know you will do when your buttons are pushed.  This requires a little more than just wising up — it requires growing up.

You are not the only religion in the world.  You are not the biggest religion in the world.  There are many other religions and they are no funnier or sillier than yours.  To those of us with no religious beliefs, it’s sometimes difficult to tell them apart.  Even your religion is not unified — there are over 30,000 different versions of Christianity because even you can’t agree on what you believe.  Only in the last thirty years or so have you decided to take a break from your constant in-house feuding to band together and instead turn on everyone else — but you’re still accusing some among you of being “un-Christian” or “cults,” like the Mormons.

If you don’t like what Nicki Minaj did on Sunday night, the most effective thing you possibly could do would be to IGNORE HER!  If you ignored the Nicki Minajes and Lady Gagas and Madonnas, they would have to find another way to stir controversy, get attention and promote their work, and they most likely would leave your beliefs alone.

But you won’t do that because you enjoy your outrage too much.  You actually seem to get off on the idea that your religious rights are being smothered and you are being persecuted, even if those things aren’t happening — and despite the claims of your religious and political leaders, they aren’t.  Because you seem to enjoy your outrage so much, I have a few suggestions.  First of all, try focusing your outrage on some real problems.

Get outraged about the fact that your priests, bishops, pastors, deacons and teachers keep raping children and your churches keep protecting them.  The Catholic church gets most of the attention in this particular field of endeavor, but the fact is that all religion is prime hunting ground for child predators because the predators know if they’re caught, the church — whether it’s Catholic or Baptist or Methodist or Seventh-day Adventist or Mormon — will protect them rather than letting unflattering news about the church go public.

Seriously, doesn’t that outrage you?  If not, why not?  Why are some of you still sending your children to Catholic schools, for example?  Why are you handing your children over to Child Rapists R Us?  Why are you still putting money in the offering plate to fund this systematic rape of children and protection of the rapists?

Get outraged about the fact that so many teenagers who are gay or are perceived as gay are bullied and tormented to the point of suicide because Christian leaders keep spreading outright lies about gay people!  Get outraged about the fact that so many Christian churches and organizations are adamantly opposed to any efforts to address and quash this behavior!  They claim its an attack on their religious rights when really, it’s an attack on their right to bully and torment gay people!  If you think homosexuality is wrong, then don’t engage in it.  Stop trying to control others who don’t feel the same way about it.

Get outraged because so many people are dying in Africa because the Catholic church and other Christian organizations keep lying about condoms!

Get outraged

The Catholic League is Catholic Fascism

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Whitney Houston Dead | Fox News Commenters Vomit Deluge of Hate and Racist Bile

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Faux News, For Fox Sakes, Fox News Racists, Racist Fox News

Fox News Commenters Respond to Whitney Houston’s Death With Deluge of Hatred and Racism
What right wing racism?
I don’t even know what to say about this any more. There’s a real sickness running rampant in the right wing; the Fox News comment thread on Whitney Houston’s death is yet another disgusting deluge of outright racism: Singer Whitney Houston Dies at 48 | Fox News.

There are almost 5000 comments posted in the thread — these are from the first few pages. Notice that the racist bastards deliberately misspell their slurs or insert random spaces, so they aren’t caught by word filters. And many of the worst comments have numerous “likes” from other commenters.

A tragedy is when someones passes away from a terminal disease or something else that no one saw coming.Whitney is just an inferior lo w life ni gg er that needed to go,no tragedy,no loss.

[…]

Any death is a tragedy you heartless bástard.

[…]
not nignogs their death is a plus

[…]

SHe couldn’t even sell issues of “the national enquirer” anymore. Everyone was tired of the TNB. Niqqer flaps her lips and screeches, niqqer becomes rich. Niqqer ends up nearly broke after spending all of her money. Niqqer in constant fights and drug binges. Niqqer ODs when she learns she’s nearly broke and she is so wasted physically she can’t make another album. Niqqer hit the end of the road, niqqer thinking and niqqer behavior led her to where she had nothing. She couldn’t face life without the “bling bling”, she knew she would never have any more “kaching kaching”

[…]

I am now patiently waiting for the grand messiah Obama to have a blk fundraiser in honor of Whitley with Kevin Costner as guest of honor with all the Hollywood elites invited along with Alan Colmes, Al Sharpton, Jeremia Wright, Charles Rangel, etc. with a menu featuring blk eyed peas, grits, Imported Kobe steak, Dom Perignon, sweet potato pie and a mus lll im scarf as a momento of this great occasion.

Of course the door prize will be an all expense paid trip to Kenya to visit the Obama tribe and birthplace of his ancestors while the American people still look for this imposter’s birth certificate in Hawaii !!!

[…]

This is typical of the blk gene pool; it happens all the time. They cannot handle fame and fortune whether it’s derived from music, acting, sports or just plain entertainment. Too much fame and too much money at one time will ki ll ll you.

How many blk people have died from drugs including alcohol that have been in the sports and the entertainment industry or screwed up their married lives like Tiger Woods or worse, OJ Simpson !!!

This is the same disease that got Obama voted into the White House.

[…]

i don’t even consider them to be included in the human race let alone on a pedistal. the people that do are a bunch of loosers.

[…]

Story goes Obama sh0ved to much cr@ck up the wh0res @zz when he was going to sniiff it…

[…]

Obvious the use of to much hair strengthener did her in.That s__t will peel paint!

[…]

unfortunately like most nignog crack hoes she was able to apply her trade on “da streets”

[…]

Another nignog off the public social rolls

[…]

BIack females are the fattest segment of the population. BIack males are the most murderousss segment of the population. Africans have the lowest IQ of all people.

[…]

Like most of her species, she suffered from chronic stupidity.

[…]

tough break niqqer.

[…]

Nothing wrong with Coors, what is good about it most_n i g g e r s_ don’t like it

[…]

oh niqqa please,nigga please.

[…]

one of the only b l a c k chics i would have ever banged…..once you go c r ack er…..you dont do cr a c k

[…]

Woo Hoo One less obama voter

[…]

Whitney who?!? some /\/iggress music artist that had a couple of hits in the early 90’s. She’s since been forgotten and now she’s dead.. Who cares..

[…]

Africans love their drugs.

[…]

Jungle Buggie ??

[…]

This is a good lesson for all of you God loving Christian girls out there, stay away from “Jungle Love.”

[…]

One less bIack crack addict in the world today. Not such a big loss.

[…]

We Whiteys dont care about some monkey crackhead, change the headline!

[…]

How funny would it be if they fuckedup the tombstone.

WHITEY HOUSTON

[…]

Their are B L A C K S and their are N i G G A S, which class do you put her mentor Bobby Brown into??? Whitney chose ???

[…]

Who cares? Black_trash gone is enough.

[…]

She is just like any other gh e tto queen.I hope the rest of these worthless piles in the inner cities follow her act .

[…]

What a waste of a good slit.

[…]

HER REAL NAME SHOULD BE KUNTA KINTI OR MOGUBA MAGABA, WHY AFRO-AMERICANS ARE USING ENGLISH NAMES AND LAST NAMES?….SHAME ON THEM!!

[…]

You know what you call Whitney Houston in a bathtub? A dead n i g g a h

[…]

Another buckwheat supporter bites the dust, oh well.

[…]

hatesandniqqers 3 hours ago

phuk you w hore,,,,,,,,,

[…]

Buckwheat is ne gro trash!

[…]

Bammy should not have given her crack from his personal stash!

[…]

B l a c k s have little to brag about about so they strut and crow about anything. The politically correct whites whine and cringe and try to be b l a c k themselves and identify with their “brothers”. Great singer but as stupid as her pal, the malignancy in the white house

[…]

she still be voting for the head niggg this nov

[…]

To bad it wasnt the monkey in the White House

There’s more. A lot more. But I have to stop now because it’s making me physically ill.

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The Madness Of Islam | Teenager Faces Jail Over Kissing

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Islamic Insanity, Islamic Loons, Religious Crazies

More On The Madness Of Muslim–Teenage Shenanigans VERBOTEN!
by KA

bikinburka

It would be laughable, if it weren’t so true.

Emirati teen gets 3-year sentence for kissing two sisters

A teenage boy in the United Arab Emirates has been sentenced to up to three years in juvenile detention for kissing two girls, The National newspaper reports.

The 15-year-old boy, identified only as “M.A.,” was initially charged with breaking into a house and sexually assaulting two 13-year-old sisters after their father found him there and called the police.

But, says the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper, an investigation found that the two sisters — who were dating him at the time — had let him into the house.

In an earlier hearing, the boy told the court that it was not the first time the girls had invited him inside and willingly kissed him.

That, in turn, prompted authorities to level similar charges at the two girls.

At Sunday’s hearing, the sisters refused to answer the judge’s questions, neither denying nor confessing to the charges.

The court ruled that the boy could be detained until he is 18, but said the sentence could be eased based upon the boy’s “readiness” and whether he is disciplined enough.

The newspaper says the girls “were to be delivered to their parents for discipline.”

I applaud the kids for their spunk, but it’s a dangerous game. It’s a culture where sexuality is covered three deep in blankets, women are routinely executed or mutilated over the slightest misperception of lewdity, and childish hijinks are rewarded with prison sentences.

It’s not just pathetic, it’s fucking barbaric.

Islam. It’s gotta go.

Till the next post, then.

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Homo Sapiens and God Myths

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in God Myths, Homo Sapiens

Homo Sapiens and God Myths

Christopher Hitchens

 

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Secularism vs. Theocracy | The Good Guys vs. Superstitious Ignorance

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Religious Kooks, Religious Reich, Religious Right, Religious Right Crusaders, Religious Roots of Hatred, Secular Humanism, Secular Revival, Secular United States, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Theocon, Theocon Fascists, Theocons, Theocracy, Theocrats

Secularism vs. Theocracy
Freedom vs. Theocracy
Freedom vs. theocracy is appropriate for this image because today’s Democratic Party is anything but secular. Instead of standing up for our secular democracy, many have adopted a path of pandering to the religious. For us, regardless of our political leanings, it is about secularism vs. theocracy.
Here’s how Adam Lee (Daylight Atheism) recently put it:

It’s secularism against theocracy, the free intellect against dogmatism, conscience against barbarity, the future against the past. Like it or not, it’s one of the defining struggles of our time. And there are many decent, well-intentioned people who don’t want to confront the full scope of the problem, who turn their gazes from it or try to paper it over with soothing platitudes. (Or worse, they claim that we, the people who are pointing out the problem, are the ones who started it all, and everything would be fine if we’d just be quieter and more respectful.)

I encourage you to read Lee’s entire post. It is one of those rare gems I plan to bookmark and re-read whenever I feel like giving up.

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Slaughterhouse Cruelty Exposed

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Agriprocessors, Animal Brutality, Animal Cruelty, Kosher Killings

A steer restrained for stunning just prior to ...
Image via Wikipedia

Slaughterhouse Cruelty Exposed

Cow

Australia’s ABC-TV’s Lateline broke a story last night on a slaughterhouse which authorities have shut down after hidden cameras revealed  cruelty to animals. The slaughterhouse in question is the source of  Kosher meat in the Sydney region.

Abattoir used in part for Shechitah Shut Down JWire.com

ABC-TV’s Lateline broke a story last night on an abattoir near Sydney which authorities have shut down after hidden cameras had revealed alleged cruelty to animals. The abattoir in question is the source of Kosher meat in the Sydney region.

Hawkesbury Valley Meat Processors in Wilberforce has been slaughtering for both the Jewish and Muslim communities for some time. The Kashrut Authority’s Rabbi Moshe Gutnick told J-Wire: “We have made immediate contingency plans to maintain the supply of Kosher meat to the community. I understand the abattoir has taken steps to rectify matters and hopes to re-open in the not too distant future.”

The abattoir’s Glen Langley told J-Wire that he would make a statement when in a legal position to do so.
J-Wire understands that a “rat” filmed dashing across the floor of the abattoir was in fact a mechanical shackle used during the processing of the animals.
Rabbi Gutnick added that the exaggerated movements of slaughtered animals is a natural process and not cruel due to oxygen deprivation even if the animal is stunned.

Hawkesbury Valley Meat Processors is not exclusively used for Kosher or Halal killing and the cruelty shown on film related to the treatment of pigs.
The ABC footage and corresponding text can be seen here.

The footage J Wire refers to doesn’t appear to be online. Instead, what you see is a shorter, less graphic version aired the following day that focuses on pig slaughter, so it’s hard to evaluate the actual shechita issues.

That said, the footage we can see shows very bad animal handling along with obscene cruelty.

That J-Wire chose not to link to the footage showing cattle slaughter (or to ask any Humane Slaughter experts about it) means we cannot evaluate Rabbi Gutnick’s claim regarding that slaughter – although the same claims were made by rabbis about Agriprocessors, and those claims were clearly false and were proved false by dozens of large animal biologists, veterenarians and, eventually, the USDA, which found Agriprocessors violated Humane Slaughter law.

And the rat?

You’ll have to take J-Wire’s claim it really was a “mechanical shackle” at face value – or not.

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The Catholic War on Women

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Anti-Reason, Birth Control, Catholic Fascism, Womens Rights

The Catholic War on Women

contraception

As we near the 2012 presidential election, continued economic progress means that we are almost certain to see Republicans push wedge issues (e.g., gay marriage, abortion, and President Obama’s so-called war on religion). They had been planning to run on the economy, but if the economy appears to be moving in the right direction, they have nothing else but their wedge issues. So let’s take a look at this war on religion Obama is allegedly waging.
As part of reforming health care, the Obama administration is seeking to provide all women with access to affordable contraception. By removing the cost barrier, women would be more free than ever before to choose for themselves whether they will use contraception.
Who could possibly have a problem with that? As it turns out, the Catholic Church is upset about this. You see, even though an overwhelming majority of Catholics in the U.S. use contraception, the Church still adheres to the Vatican position that birth control is essentially equivalent to abortion. And Republicans desperate for a wedge issue have taken up this cause to argue that Obama is waging war on religion.
The Obama administration hopes to provide access to contraception by requiring employers to select health care plans that include contraceptive coverage, which most already do. The Catholic Church and many Republicans are up in arms about this because they claim that it requires employers to violate their conscience by providing health services with which they do not agree. It does not seem to matter what sort of exemptions the administration offers because Republicans think they have an effective wedge issue with which to attract moronic voters.

I applaud the administration’s plan to provide women with access to affordable contraception. This is about improving health care. If only the Catholic bishops would spend as much time working on the prevention of child rape as they do opposing contraception, they might be able to make a real difference.

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Islamist prisoners spread radicalization in UK jails, report finds

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Islam, Islamic, Islamic Fascism, Islamic Fundamentalism, Islamic Religious Right, Islamist Fundamentalists, Islamofascism

Islamist prisoners spread radicalization in UK jails, report finds

Ministers of parliament visited Belmarch prison in south-east London, which detains some of the most dangerous extremists in the country, including radical cleric Abu Hamza. (Reuters)

Ministers of parliament visited Belmarch prison in south-east London, which detains some of the most dangerous extremists in the country, including radical cleric Abu Hamza. (Reuters)
By AL ARABIYA

Islamist prisoners in the United Kingdom are preaching radical Islam to new inmates, recent findings in a nine-month inquiry by the home affairs select committee have revealed on Monday.

The report states that despite extreme security in UK jails, in some cases inmates were being persuaded to carry out suicide missions within days of entering prison, The Telegraph reported, citing the findings.

Ministers of parliament had visited Belmarch prison in south-east London, which detains some of the most dangerous extremists in the country and where 20 percent of inmates are Muslims, housing more than 30 terrorist prisoners.

Among the detainees, MPs spoke to radical cleric Abu Hamza, serving a seven-year sentence in Belmarch for inciting murder and racial hatred while fighting an extradition to the United States on terror charges.

According to the report, titled “Roots of Radicalization,” Hamza claimed: “Grievances [for Islamists in UK prisons] were driven by British foreign policy, relating to Palestine and Afghanistan, and a sense that the Prophet [Mohammed] was being mocked,” The Telegraph reported.

But Hamza denied that his sermons contributed to radicalization, telling the MPs he believed “it was enough for people to watch the news to be radicalized.”

Hamza also claimed that prisoners turned to extremism because of a combination of “grievance, guilt and capability.”

The findings come as four radical Islamists are due to be sentenced for plotting a major terror attack before Christmas on the London Stock Exchange, the London Eye and other important landmarks in the city.

It is believed that one of the terrorists, Abdul Miah, 25, was radicalized in prison after being sentenced for drugs and weapons offences, the newspaper reported.

A former neighbor of his in Cardiff told The Telegraph that Miah had “gone into prison as a petty criminal and came out spouting extremist views.”

But Michael Spurr, of the National Offender Management Service, told the committee they had “some evidence of individual prisoners who may have attempted to say things or have indicated views that could attract people to a radical cause” but no evidence that incited radicalization in jails was on the rise.

The report, however, suggested that “good aftercare [would ensure] prisoners who may have been vulnerable to violent extremist ideology in prison can make the transition safely into the community.”
(Written by Eman El-shenawi)

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Self-Righteous Islamic Fundis Attack Film | Islamic Fascism in Egypt

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Censorship, Islamic Censorship, Islamic Fascism, Religious Fascism

Filming of Egyptian TV series halted  after Islamist students complain of actresses’ ‘indecent’ clothes

Filming of an Egyptian TV series at a university in Cairo reportedly was halted after Islamist students protested against “indecent” costumes worn by the actresses, AFP reported.

  • Cairo’s Ain Shams University had given Misr International films, the production company, permission to film on its campus, Gaby Khoury, head of the company, told AFP.

    “When the shooting started, the director of the engineering faculty, Sherif Hammad, came to tell us that some students and teachers were against it, because of the clothing worn by the actresses,” he said.

    The show is set in the 1970s, “when women wore short clothing.”

    Islamists have become increasingly prominent in Egyptian society in recent years, winning a large stake in the new government this year in the first parliamentary elections since the ousting of Hosni Mubarak, the longtime president.

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Bestiality Brothels On Rise In Germany

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Animal Abuse, Animal Cruelty, Bestiality, PETA

brothels spur call for animal sex ban

http://www.thelocal.de/society/20120203-40531.html

 

Animal sex abuse is on the rise in Germany, with bestiality brothels being set up across the country, according to a state animal protection officer demanding stronger laws to protect mankind’s furry and feathered friends.

Madeleine Martin, the animal protection official for Hessian state government, said the law needed to be changed to make sex abuse of animals – known as zoophilia – a crime.

“It is punishable to distribute animal pornography, but the act itself is not,” she told the Frankfurter Rundschau daily paper on Friday.

“There are even animal brothels in Germany,” she said. Sex with animals was being increasingly seen as a lifestyle choice, and thus more acceptable.

“The abuse seems to be increasingly rapidly, and the internet offers an additional distribution platform,” she said.

She said the justice authorities had found it exceptionally difficult to convict a man from Hesse, who had offered pictures and instructions for animal sex abuse over the internet.

“Zoophilia must be completely banned in the reformed animal protection law,” said Martin, referring to the governments plan to rework that section of the law.

Sex with animals was banned until 1969, when the animal protection law was introduced, but failed to include a specific ban on zoophilia, the Frankfurter Rundschau said.

Martin said the current legal situation makes it too difficult for authorities to intervene – an animal has to be shown to have massive injuries before the animal protection laws prescribe action.

The Local/hc

What do you think? Leave your comment below.

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Jewish Con Man Admits Torah Fraud | He’s Only Sorry Because He Got Caught

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Jewish Con Man, Jewish Fraud

‘Jewish Indiana Jones’ admits NY Torah fraud
Associated PressBy LARRY NEUMEISTER | Associated Press
FILE- In this Aug. 24, 2011 file photo, Menachem Youlus leaves federal court in New York after appearing on mail and wire fraud charges. Youlus, a Jewish charity co-founder who claimed he traveled the world as a "Jewish Indiana Jones" to rescue Torahs, has pleaded guilty to fraud charges on Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012 in New York. (AP Photo/Larry Neumeister, File)
Enlarge Photo
  • FILE- In this Aug. 24, 2011 file photo, Menachem Youlus leaves federal court in New …

NEW YORK (AP) — A Jewish charity co-founder who claimed he traveled the world as a “Jewish Indiana Jones” to rescue Torahs pleaded guilty to fraud charges Thursday, saying he lied when he claimed he had personally obtained vintage Torah scrolls in Europe and Israel for six years.

Menachem Youlus entered the plea to mail and wire fraud charges in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Youlus is the owner of the Jewish Bookstore in Wheaton, Md., where he lives. A plea deal with prosecutors called for him to serve up to five years and three months in prison.

“I know what I did was wrong, and I deeply regret my conduct,” Youlus, 50, said as he described the lies he told between 2004 and 2010 to obtain funds from his Save a Torah charity and some of its contributors.

Prosecutors said he defrauded the charity he founded and its donors out of $862,000.

The government said he fabricated detailed accounts of exploits to recover Torahs lost or hidden during the Holocaust, including at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland and the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.

During his plea, he said his lies included telling prospective buyers that he had personally retrieved parts of one scroll from a metal box at Auschwitz.

A criminal complaint said Youlus had distributed Torahs he bought from U.S. dealers to synagogues and congregations nationwide, sometimes at inflated rates. It said he put nearly a third of $1.2 million collected by the charity into his personal accounts, spending some of it on private school tuition for his children and on personal expenses, including meals and health care.

The publicly stated mission of the charity was to locate and acquire Torahs that survived the Holocaust or had been taken from Jewish communities worldwide and repair them so they could be used in communities that need them. But authorities said Youlus rarely traveled abroad during the years he had claimed to go Torah hunting.

At a 2004 Torah dedication, Youlus wrote: “I guess you could call me the Jewish Indiana Jones,” the complaint said, referencing the action-adventure hero played by Harrison Ford in the 1981 Stephen Spielberg classic “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

In a statement, attorney Benjamin Brafman said he will seek leniency at a June 21 sentencing for Youlus, “a good man with the best of intentions who ultimately strayed into fraudulent conduct that he now accepts full responsibility for.”

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Catholic Fanatic Rick Santorum Latest GOP Frontrunner

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Catholic Fanatic, Catholic Fascism, Catholic Power, Right Wing Nuts

Rick Santorum: The New Face of the GOP

A reactionary, anti-science religious fanatic is now the frontrunner
Via:-  Charles Johnson

The thing about Rick Santorum is that he’s genuine. He really believes that anti-science reactionary bullshit he spouts. He’s not just saying it to get elected, unlike Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.

The reactionary Republican base senses this genuineness; they see Santorum as one of them. And this has now catapulted Santorum into the lead — 15 points ahead of Romney.

Riding a wave of momentum from his trio of victories on Tuesday Rick Santorum has opened up a wide lead in PPP’s newest national poll. He’s at 38% to 23% for Mitt Romney, 17% for Newt Gingrich, and 13% for Ron Paul.

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GOP’s Ongoing War On Women | Does The Fascist Catholic Right Dictate Republican Policy?

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Uncategorized

Now the GOP Wants to Permit Any Employer to Deny Contraception Coverage
The Republican Party’s total war on women’s rights
Via:- Charles Johnson

The Republican Party’s descent into Dark Ages misogyny continues; now Mitch McConnell, sensing that the GOP is on a reactionary roll, is planning to introduce legislation to let any employer deny contraception coverage.

Just amazing. In the space of a few months the Republican Party has gone from opposing abortion to opposing birth control — even though the vast majority of Americans use contraception of some kind.

They’re not even trying to use the “religious exception” excuse any more. It’s a flat out war on contraception.

Not satisfied with President Obama’s new religious accommodation, Republicans will move forward with legislation that permits any employer to deny contraception coverage in their health insurance plans, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Sunday.

“If we end up having to try to overcome the President’s opposition by legislation, of course I’d be happy to support it, and intend to support it,” McConnell said. “We’ll be voting on that in the Senate and you can anticipate that that would happen as soon as possible.”

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Fanatic Jews Attack Christian

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Jewish Fanatics, Religious Fanatics

Two Yeshiva Students Arrested For Attacking Christian In Old City

Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Morgenstern 3

The two yeshiva students apparently left from Yeshivas Toras Chochom, the yeshiva of (or went with) Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Morgenstern, a “kabbalist” who is a Breslov hasid, walked into the Old City and from there went to Mount Zion, to pray at the purported grave of King David. They encountered a religious Christian, who they insulted (and may have spit on, as well). Police were called and the students were arrested – apparently at King David’s tomb.

Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Morgenstern 3

Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Morgenstern

Sketchy details on Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew website.

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Are Floating Homes The Future?

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Environment, Future, Science, Technology

Floating Homes Are The Future

Floating HomeMany people are aware of problems such as glacial melt and overpopulation, yet when it comes to how these will impact the way we live on this planet in the future, most people don’t know where to start. The fact is, issues such as these will cause many toxic problems throughout the world, the worst by far being the fact that land will likely become inhabitable. While this would’ve likely meant the end of civilization in the past, the constant advancement of technology ensures that we will one day be able to expand to the waters of the world.

Since most people live in brick and mortar, wood or aluminum homes that exist on land, the world would have to go through a massive shift in ideals, as society would be forced to move to the water. This, however, would not have to be a negative change, as new homes and communities could be built to exist solely on the oceans and seas of the world. While it would likely begin as small homes being crafted to float on the water, many people believe that entire floating cities will find their way into existence in the future; cities that would be clean, affordable, and “green” in every way possible.

While the technology for this isn’t necessarily one-hundred percent there yet, it is certainly getting there. Jacque Fresco, mastermind behind The Venus Project, is a huge proponent of what he calls “memory metal,” metal that can be bent into whatever shape or form one would like and – when contacted with a certain heat – will return to its original state. Fresco believes that memory metal will be used to create floating structures in the future, as it can be easily transported, broken down and rebuilt with the simple application of heat. Those who are proponents of movements like The Venus Project believe that floating homes and cities are inevitable because of the way mankind has treated the planet thus far. Rises in crime, population and global warming all point to a wasteful future if nothing is done, and chances are the land will one day become completely nonviable. Since the planet is mostly water, however, the Earth is ripe with opportunity to create floating, sustainable communities for people to live, work and thrive upon.

As work continues to be done to support the advancement of technology necessary to turning these ideals into a reality, people the world over are on board with the possibility of floating cities in the future. While Fresco’s work may seem entirely futuristic and possibly even far-fetched to some, it is representative of a shift in consciousness that must occur if human beings are to continue living on this planet. His view of communities built out of reusable, sustainable materials is in stark contrast to the way most of the world operates today. The future of floating homes depends on those working to advance technology.  The more that get on board, the faster it will happen.

is a source of more useful resources.

Resources:

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Violent Jewish Religionists | US Issues Travel Warning

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Jewish Extremists, Religious Fanatics, Religious Violence

US Issues Travel Warning About Haredi Violence

Haredim throwing stones

Concerned by violence against women and children by so-called extremist haredim in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh, the United States Department of State has issued a travel advisory for US citizens traveling to Israel recommending dressing in “modest” attire and not driving through or adjacent to haredi neighborhoods on Shabbat. “Most roads into ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhoods are blocked off on  Friday nights, Saturdays, and Jewish holidays. Assaults on secular  visitors, either for being in cars or for being ‘immodestly dressed’  have occurred in these neighborhoods,” the US Consulate in Jerusalem wrote.

Haredim throwing stones

Haredim throwing stones at police in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem, Israel

US warns tourists against ‘immodest attire’ in Jerusalem Concerns over recent haredi extremism in Israel’s capital prompt US consulate to publish Jerusalem travel recommendations for American tourists Itamar Eichner • Ynet

The US State Department is concerned over recent violence exhibited by extremists in Israel’s haredi community and has published a travel recommendation for tourists: Do not walk around dressed immodestly in haredi neighborhoods for fear that extremists would assault you in the street.

The travel recommendations which were updated by the US State Department two weeks ago with the recent phenomenon of women’s exclusion and haredi violence in mind, calls on American tourists to dress appropriately when visiting religious sites in the Old City and in haredi neighborhoods and to avoid driving through those neighborhoods during the Sabbath.

“Most roads into ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhoods are blocked off on Friday nights, Saturdays, and Jewish holidays. Assaults on secular visitors, either for being in cars or for being ‘immodestly dressed’ have occurred in these neighborhoods,” the consulate said.

The travel recommendation follows on the heels of statements made by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who, speaking at the Saban Conference two months ago, expressed her shock that some busses in Jerusalem allocated separate seating areas for women.

“It’s reminiscent of Rosa Parks,” she said, referring to the black American woman who refused to give up her seat to white passengers in the 1950s.
Referring to the decision of some IDF soldiers to leave an event where female soldiers were singing, she said it reminded her of the situation in Iran.

[Hat Tip: Seymour.]

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Deceptive Israeli Firster Propagandist Pretends He’s From Canada’s CBC

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Israeli Firster, Israeli Right, Reporting Bias, Right Wing Deception, Right Wing Zionist

Deceptive Israeli Firster Propagandist Pretends He’s From Canada’s CBC

VIDEO HERE:-
After all the negativity and attacks by anti-Palestinian groups, prior to the Penn BDS conference, the event itself has been a real celebration of solidarity among an incredibly diverse group of people.

I had the honor to give the keynote lecture last night to a packed auditorium. Here’s the recording of the live stream for anyone who wants to watch. Hopefully a better quality recording will become available in a few days.

The Jewish Daily Forward reported:

A prominent Palestinian rights activist said Saturday night that the recent fury around the first national conference advocating a boycott of Israel, being held at the University of Pennsylvania, signifies that the Mideast conflict is at an “end game.”

“This insane hysteria about the conference tells us something about the moment we are in,” said Ali Abunimah, a co-founder of the Electronic Intifada news site, in his keynote speech at the conference. “In terms of the battle of ideas, we are in the end game.”

Also read Sarah Smith’s report in The Daily Pennsylvanian:

Ali Abunimah spoke to a full lecture hall in Meyerson Hall on Saturday night as the keynote speaker of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions conference. Abunimah is a Palestinian-American activist and the creator of The Electronic Intifada, an online publication focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I reiterate the spirit in which we came together: we stand against all forms of bigotry,” Abunimah said.

Anti-Palestinian filmmaker poses as CBC “journalist”

Benjamin Doherty’s Twitter

@bangpound Benjamin DohertyPropagandists at #PennBDS are misrepresenting themselves as journalists from the CBC. http://t.co/TS2nFtBU Feb 04 via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet Reply

Mondoweiss also has featured great coverage of the conference including about Martin Himel an anti-Palestinian filmmaker whose crew misrepresented him as a journalist from Canada’s CBC and who briefly had me fooled.

Here’s what happened: on Saturday morning, I was approached by two women who presented themselves as producers from Canada who were there to cover the conference. One of them clearly told me they were from the CBC. I was a bit surprised that the CBC would send a team to cover the conference but I thought perhaps with all the publicity it didn’t seem unreasonable they might have sent a US-based team from New York or Washington.

I agreed to be interviewed but later on. After the morning breakout session, one of the women buttonholed me and asked if I minded doing the interview then. Since it was the lunch break I said that was fine. She took me to a room where they had a camera and lights set up. They miked me and sat me down, and then the interviewer appeared. I learned only later that it was Martin Himel.

But the moment the interview began, I smelled something fishy. It was more of an attempted set up rather than a professional interview. Himel presented me with what he claimed were anti-Semitic cartoons from Palestinian media and wanted to confront me with them. The only thing I could see is they were printed off from the anti-Palestinian website “Palestinian Media Watch.” Palestinian Media Watch, I told Himel, is notorious for anti-Palestinian propaganda and is funded principally by a man currently on the run for money laundering.

I answered that I had no idea where the cartoons came from and didn’t trust the source. He then started talking about alleged incidents of anti-Jewish statements from “Fatah TV.” I dismissed the questions saying I couldn’t comment on things I hadn’t seen and if he had wanted me to comment on them he ought to be able to show them to me.

Then strangely, he started asking me about what I thought about the Palestinian writer Mazin Qumsiyeh – I just laughed and said he should read Mazin’s brilliant books.

His other questions seemed to be about proving that the real reason for Palestinian hostility to Israel was Islamic religious fanaticism.

At this point Himel seemed nervous because I wasn’t taking the bait, and he said, “I’m just as tough on the Jews when I interview them.” I told him firmly I didn’t appreciate him making generalizations about “the Jews” because such language sounded anti-Semitic and I didn’t care to hear it.

I quickly cut the interview short and left the room. I never signed Himel’s release form. I immediately reported to conference organizers that Himel and his crew were misrepresenting themselves as CBC journalists in order to gain access to conference speakers with, I believe, the intent of setting them up and obtaining soundbites that could be distorted or used to defame them and the conference.

Another dirty trick foiled.

More coverage of the conference

Susan Abulhawa, author of Mornings in Jenin, opened the conference. From The Daily Pennsylvanian:

Comparing the Palestinian struggle to those of the civil rights activists, anti-Vietnam leaders and apartheid South Africa, Abulhawa condemned the United Nations for inactivity and called on Israel “to abandon their nation of superiority.”

“You will never break us,” she said as she neared the end of her speech. An overwhelming applause erupted from the crowd.

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Eco-Tech | Safe And Sustainable Farming

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Eco-Tech, Ecology, Environment

Safe And Sustainable Farming

What would you think of a tractor with sensor controlled motion path determination, adjustable suspension, with 24-hour usability thanks to 360-degree night vision camera? What would you say about tractor who, beside pulling heavy equipment and attachments also can assess topographic datas and use them in farming activities? You would probably say – no way! And today I can tell you – yes, closer than you think!

Designers Prithu Paul and Ankit Kumar made this futuristic tractor concept. He is designed to keep up with the ecological problems and climate change in the years to come. That’s why he would use hydrogen fuel cells for power. This multi-dimensional tractor will make farming safe, simple and sustainable in the future.

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Publicity Mad Egomaniacal Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Crooks and Liars, Rabbi Scammers, Rabbi Shyster

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Runs For Congress

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach,jpg

The man who never met a microphone he didn’t want to slobber on or a camera he didn’t want to mug for has announced that’s he’s running for US Congress. The announcement came in the wake of widespread Orthodox critism of his (bad) book on Jesus Christ that has probably nixed any chance the publicity mad egomaniacal Chabad-ordained rabbi has to be the new chief rabbi of England.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach,jpg

“America’s Rabbi” Wants To Be Your Congressman

By Shmarya Rosenberg

Now you can hate him for another reason.

Shmuley Boteach, who likes to bill himself as “America’s Rabbi,” is running for Congress.

Botech told Bergen County’s Republican Organization Wednesday night that he wants to be their congressman and submitted his name to officially enter the New Jersey 9th Congressional District race, the PolitckerNJ reported.

Boteach is the controversial self-promoting Chabad-ordained rabbi, TV and radio host best known for being Michael Jackson’s rabbi.

Boteach has also authored more than a dozen books, most of them panned by rabbis and experts in the various fields Boteach has declared himself to be an expert in.

The latest of these, “Kosher Jesus,” has drawn wide condemnation from hundreds of Chabad rabbis, along with Jewish anti-missionary organizations and scholars.

Before the book’s publication earlier this week, Boteach had been considered for the soon-to-be-vacant post of chief rabbi of England. His chance to nab that coveted position went from plausible to almost impossible when “Kosher Jesus” was published to wide criticism.
Botech lives in Englewood, New Jersey.

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