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From its pyramid-shaped throne on the back of a dollar bill…
By Tony Norman, @Common Dreams
“I am the god of the 1 percent. You shall have no other gods before me. I help those who help themselves and visit poverty over many generations to those who would redistribute the wealth that I have freely given to those who luxuriate without guilt in my love. I reward the spirit of material excess because I hate poverty and the poor who have rejected my ways.
“I am a vulgar god who never tires of the misery perpetuated by those who exploit the resources of the planet for tax breaks and personal gain. The smoke of belching coal plants and runoff from hydraulic fracturing pleases me. Let those who refuse to rape the earth that I have made in six days be accursed.
“I am the god of ‘In God We Trust.’ You shall have no other gods before me. Give to the poor (if you must) out of your excess and at your discretion. Don’t be compelled by guilt. The poor don’t need a safety net as long as I, the god of the Koch brothers and Ayn Rand, lives in the heart of every patriotic American. It is money that I love, not mercy for its own sake. Mercy without conditions offends me.
“I am the god of the morally upright. I abhor homosexuals, Democrats, mimes and all who believe in global warming. Those who have AIDS can give all glory to me. It is by my hand that every dread disease except obesity and cancer is visited upon the earth. Do not be fooled: I loathe the followers of Lady Gaga. Women who refuse to submit to male authority are an abomination.
“Those who believe in me know evolution is a lie straight from hell. The dinosaurs drowned during Noah’s day because the ark couldn’t contain them. This is not a mystery if you believe science is evil with all your heart.
“I am the god of war. I love violence and the mindless proliferation of guns in every home. Horses and bayonets proclaim my glory over the whole earth. That is why America is my blood-stained footstool. Guns don’t kill — I do.
“I am the god of the Invisible Hand. I hate the 47 percent who siphon the productivity of my blessed Job Creators. On Election Day, I will pour out my wrath on those who receive the mark of the Kenyan Keynesian. Repent of your idolatrous liberalism, or else.”
No fear…
That a government that was founded on the principle of Freedom from Religious persecution is now using Religion to persecute Freedom. It’s called Fascism. Nazis.
“Christian resolve to find the world evil & ugly, has made the world evil & ugly.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
A Chinese immigrant who beheaded and cannibalized a Canadian bus passenger in front of horrified travelers four years ago spoke out for the first time, saying he believed his victim was an alien.
Vince Weiguang Li, 43, was found not guilty of murdering 22-year-old Tim McLean on a Canadian Greyhound bus on July 30, 2008. …
Li had repeatedly stabbed McLean, who had been asleep on the seat next to him, cut off his head, removed his internal organs, pocketed his nose, tongue and an ear, and taunted police and bystanders with the severed head.
Police said in court documents Li “appeared to smell, and then eat parts of Tim McLean’s flesh” and “lick blood from his hands” as they surrounded the bus on a desolate highway 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of Winnipeg, in western Canada, soon after the attack. Li is a devout Christian.
Barbarians inside the gate.
Over at No More Mister Nice Tom Hilton leads a discussion about Calvinistic predestination – the idea that God decided ages ago who would be saved (the Elect) and who wouldn’t, and that’s how it is and nothing anyone can do can possibly change that.
“The most widely played sound bite from Romney’s tepid ‘repudiation’ of the proposed all-Wright-all-the-time anti-Obama ad campaign is the part where he said “I stand by what I said, whatever it was”. And with good reason: that + Etch-a-Sketch = ad that writes itself.
But there was another bit that leapt out at me, beginning at around 2:06 (see video at link):
The purpose of the President’s ads is not to describe success and failure but somehow to suggest that I’m…not a good person, or not a good guy. And I think the American people will know better than that, if they don’t already. [emphasis added]
Sound vaguely familiar? Wondering where you might have heard something like that before? I’ll tell you: you heard it from everyone who ever thought he/she was being unjustly accused of doing or saying something racist. Or sexist. Or homophobic.
It’s a classic dodge, shifting focus from your conduct (which others can observe and evaluate) to your character (which only you know, and what you know is that it’s good). The thought process works like this: I’m not a bad person; therefore, I’m not a racist; therefore, what I said can’t have been racist. Or in Romney’s variation, I’m a good guy; therefore, I’m not a heartless bastard; therefore, I can’t have hurt those people. The point being that one’s inherent nature far outweighs anything one actually does.” …
The irony is that in the authoritarian, dominionist, evangelical fundamentalist worldview there is no Inherent Goodness … all are born in sin, must accept, must embrace, the christian “lord” and symbolically “wash away the sin” through baptism to be “saved”. Having escaped that environment nearly fifty years ago … I don’t think Calvinistic predestination weighs as heavily today as when denominations were far more … ahhh … “defined”, were far less homogeneous. Less generic.
Speaking of distractions … I’ve long wondered what the “Chosen People” think of the “Elect’s core view of them. In the authoritarian, dominionist, evangelical fundamentalist worldview before their precious lord and master will float down out of the heavens on a white horse with a thousand sidekicks to carry them (the Elect) all away to paradise two/thirds of “Israel” must be destroyed, two/thirds of the “Jewish” population must die. These people don’t “Love” Israel, they want it destroyed.
Magic underpants, polygamy, and post/humous baptisms of a slave population for their “heavenly planet” read from a book of golden pages (in a hat) just isn’t all that weird. Of concern, yes … weird, no.
For the Catholic Church: When in doubt, hurt the innocent.
You want to solve the problem? Burn the churches. Burn them to the ground.
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is often cited to condemn homosexuality, because in it, God destroyed the two towns after its citizens attempted to gang rape two male visitors who turned out to be “angels” — ”angels” who were saved that ignominy by one Lot, who offered up instead his daughters to the crowd for their “gang rape”. Yeah, that Lot, the one who then fucks his daughters.
I find it funny that evangelicals who want to remake America into a Christian theocracy are willing to vote for a Mormon who they don’t even believe is a Christian (mind you, this crowd doesn’t think that Catholics are Christians). It just goes to show the intellectual and moral and theological bankruptcy of the religious right. They bash the rest of us for not being Christian enough, and then are willing to overlook a guy they don’t think is Christian at all.
Some guy wearing a gold dress is going to tell me how to behave.
You want to solve the problem? Burn the fucking churches. Down to the ground.
