So, Militant Atheists . . .

. .  posit an absolutist doctrine concerning eternal verities which they cannot prove.

. .  insist the only true path to salvation for humankind is through their view.

. .  believe it is their duty to make their belief the prevailing one. 

. . condescend to, belittle and dehumanize those who disagree.

. . produce slick multimedia mass presentations which exclude opposing views or different interpretations.

. . rely on a group of overprivileged white guys and hipsters to deliver their message. 

. . pump out and push the sales of their leading spokespeoples' writings.

. . tell themselves they are part of a special, superior group who are going to be better off than everyone else.

. . take great pleasure in the misfortunes of those who believe differently.

. . respond to opposing views with mockery, vicious slander and outright abuse rather than debate.

. .  create a fear-based us/them dichotomy in which all "our" problems are "their" fault to mobilize their base.  

. . provide no agenda for movement for any sort of improvement of humankind, only a movement against one segment of humanity.

. . use their chief apologists' theory of an inherent disorder (a selfish gene) to condemn others and yet excuse their own personal misdeeds. 

. . claim that their writings are absolute proof that they are correct.

NOW, HOW IS THAT NOT AT ALL LIKE FUNDAMENTALIST RELIGION AGAIN?

Please, feel free to post this elsewhere.  I doubt I'll get any real answers here.

Consider . . .

Richard Dawkins is the L. Ron Hubbard of the 21st Century.

I Can Honestly Say I've Never Heard This On The Balalaika Before

And I love the balalaika

Sweet Amidst Bitter

Fr. Jay and Alison have a baby girl, Ella, who is absolutely beautiful . . . that coming from someone who thinks newborns generally look like an unsuccessful attempt to splice a plum, a marmoset, and a lizard. 

See, This is Why Humans Suck

I am poor.  This is established.

By Third World standards, I'm probably very wealthy.

This is NOT the Third World, and it takes a hell of a lot just to get by on.

So, I go to pay the utility bill with my debit card tonight - DECLINED! 

I've been very careful in budgeting just enough to pay for the utilities, so why is it declined?

I check.  Attempted charges to Ticket Master, the National Epileptic Foundation of North Seattle (successful),  and oh, a few retailers. 

Why?  I don't put my debit card info out there to just anyone.  I'm careful with my passwords and id's. 

And I'm poor. 

So, why?  Now, I get to scramble to get the cash before my power's turned off tomorrow. 

I do wonder if it has anything to do with a recently-spurned commenter?

Interviews With "Battle For Middle Earth 2" Veterans

Grushnuk, orc, Mordor builder corps - survivor of the Battle of Erebor -

"So, 'ere I am, all ready to open the doors to the Great Siege Works, knowin' I'm gonna have to build summat else quick - work's never done in The Eye's service, you know - when all sudden I hear a banjo - out o' no-bloody- where - and some old party behind me singin' about their yellow boots and I'm flat on my back, wonderin' what the 'ell 'appened, and the Siege Works is on fire and a whole company of attack trolls lyin' there dead.  Well, I says to myself, 'Bugger this for a lark!' and just lies there waitin' for the stretchers and decides I'm well out of it.  I mean say as you will, but I signed up to fight dwarves,  not to get me brains splattered all over Dale by peculiarly-dressed ol' gents a-skippin' and a-dancin' and a-singin' while they eat catapults and knock trolls over the roofs!

 Let me tell you, whoever said 'War is hell' musta been at Erebor. 

Course, we was lucky.  I 'ad a cousin who survived Dol Guldur, says the elves threw a river at 'em.  A fuckin' river, mate!  And threw it, right at 'em!  Do I believe 'im?  Too right! 

I mean!

I still hear it, in my nightmares, the sound of that there banjo."

Urrg, Mordor Drummer Troll - survivor of Erebor -

"Urrg stand 'dere, beatin' drum, finkin' 'Trolls not so fick.  Orcs say trolls fick.  Urrg not fick,' den dere is blueyellow banjo man. 

Urrg see man, and fink, 'Smash!' but man say 'e is pleased to meet Urrg.  Urrg is 'appy, but man lay Urrg on 'is arse and dance away. 

Urrg fink man not pleased to meet Urrg.  Urrg not fick!"

A Thought

I keep hearing people say that the first step to a peaceful world is to sit down and figure out what the other person is saying to us.

This is incorrect.

The first step is to sit down and figure out what each of us, ourselves, is saying to us. 

Who Says Isolationism is Bad?

After the comments by the Archfuckwit, I go to Thinking Anglicans, which is usually measured in its tone, thanks to Simon Sarmiento's moderation, even on brutally-divisive points. 

I find this:

The Vatican has criticised this killing as well. Watching Americans, especially young people who were children at 9/11 dancing in the streets tells us how far things have fallen in the U.S. Or maybe their violent nature is just more open now. It looked like any jubilant crowd in Tehran. But then again, the U.S. has murdered its enemies before and wrapped itself in a cloak of righteousness. To them, they are the only people who mater on the planet, so, to paraphrase Nixon (with Frost), if the U.S. does it, it is not illegal.


Posted by: Richard Grand on Thursday, 5 May 2011 at 10:03pm BST

and this little charmer from someone who likes to claim his liberal guilt for all the rest of us 'Murkans:

Many people are saying this sort of thing, and I wonder how they cannot reflect that the U.S. has caused the deaths of thousands of unarmed innocent civilians in many parts of the world, most recently and notably in Iraq and Afghanistan. And what of the deaths of armed nationals whose offense is opposing foreign occupation of their native lands?



If we're uncomfortable with the cold-blooded killing of a man (and his staff) in his own home, I wonder that we're not more uncomfortable with the impersonal slaughter of wedding parties, motor convoys, and apartment house residents in the Middle East by missiles dropped from drone aircraft remotely controlled from centers in Nevada -- all to eliminate people suspected of organizing opposition to foreign occupation (ours). Sorry about the women and children in the area. No offense intended. Sign here for burial expenses.


The U.S. empire has operated outside public view in large part -- who knows about the conquest of the Philippines or the murder of the opposition party by our dictator in Peru? Nowadays, we can see how the beast operates, and it's not a pretty sight. But it undergirds the U.S. standard of living. Where to start unraveling it? The ABC, and the church at large, might give it some thought, instead of continuing to operate as a department of Empire, and apologist for the powers-that-be.

Posted by: Murdoch Matthew on Friday, 6 May 2011 at 5:09am BST
 
Now, I don't mind claiming my part of the guilt pie, but I am tired of the hypocrisy that claims that somehow Americans are the worst, most horrible, most dreadful creatures to ever have lived.  Why we invented genocide and imperialism and war and murder!  Whatever evil there is, we've done it more, worse, longer than any of the sainted nations of Europe!  I have no problem with saying we are just as bad, but no worse.  And Mr. Matthew's comment up there isn't an "I'm sorry we've done that" but "Look at how awful they are!" 
 
Does nobody get this?  That is the problem.  "They" and "Us" - no matter how terrible "they" may be, "they" wouldn't be "them" without "us" being "us."  Life doesn't happen in a vacuum. 
 
Why is there a W.?  Partially because of me.  Why is there a Tea Party?  Partially because of me.  Why is there a Taliban?  Partially because of me.  Why was there an Osama bin Laden?  Partially because of me.  Why was there a sad, unedifying end to Osama bin Laden?  Partially because of me. 
 
And you, and everybody else. 
 
And the hypocritical refusal to own that, the urge to point fingers is NOT cathartic, NOT a good way to relieve tension, NOT sound psychological practice, it is the whole goddamned reason the music keeps playing the exact same apocalyptic tune over and over.  
 
If I fall into the trap of "What about what they did?!" - which I did! - I am playing the same sad, tired game. 
 
Isolationism - that's the way to go.  Maybe, if everybody, every person, was sent to their corners for a few decades, then they'd learn there are still problems with no "Them" to blame it on.  Maybe a little isolation would teach us to honor one another and value the whole damned human community. 

The Watchful Peace

That's a part of the Tolkien storytelling, too.

Sauron thrown down by the Last Alliance of Men and Elves, the Ring taken from him.  The Watchful Peace, because he wasn't really gone.

When I started the Tolkien stuff last week, it was because I've been playing Battle for Middle Earth 2 and wanted to learn more about the places and folks involved.  I was fascinated, so I shared it with the handful of folks who talk with me here.  I didn't expect it to turn prophetic.

Osama bin Laden is dead.  Huzzah!  Rejoice!  The Dark Lord is overthrown!  Peace at last!

But the Ring remains.

I keep hearing people say how A Great Evil was removed from our world.  Liberals and conservatives alike are pleased.  Now, they say, we can get on with a good world.

But the Ring remains.

Bin Laden was a symptom.  Just like the Tea Party, Palin, Whatsisname Ryan, the governors of Michigan and Wisconsin, Ghaddafi, the Syrian "Security Services," the Taliban.  The evil embodied in these symptoms has absolutely not been removed - the lust for power, the crushing poverty and lack, or simply the avarice that perceives lack in plenty, all are still Right.  There. 

Worse, now we have the Ring!

A good, decent generous person wrote, without any irony, that there were still revolutionaries in the Middle East, still violence but "it's not aimed at the West," so bin Laden's death was the removal of a Great Evil.   It's not hurting us, so it's okay.  I felt sickened, though I know that isn't what she meant, it's what we mean, in our celebrating.

I keep being told that it wasn't revenge, but the execution of justice, and yet, when asked if the terrorist cells are gone now, I'm told they collapsed or became meaningless long ago. 

Follow that?  Bin Laden lost his power, because the cells collapsed, but we killed him to keep him from being a danger.  And it's not, not, NOT! revenge.  It's Justice. 

Right here, a Tea Party movement has taken advantage of economic collapse to advance a pseudo-religious conservative totalitarianism that has gained, frankly, enormous ground and exposure.  Yet, bin Laden was the source of terrorist religious totalitarianism, and we've removed him.  This is what is being said. 

The Ring survives, and is ours, now.

Power.  Security.  We don't have to worry about him, anymore.  The rest of the world's on its own.  We are strong, strong, STRONG! and have no fears.  We are Good!  THE Good!   Others are poor, others are in filth and struggling, we are wealthy because we deserve it, because we are The Good, and the problems of others can't be helped.  Those among us who aren't wealthy, we can ignore, because The Good killed The Bad and everyone will prosper because we, The Good, are powerful!

If we had brought him back, filthy, bedraggled, powerless and in handcuffs to stand trial helpless before the world, we, and they, would've known the Evil isn't gone.  We would've kept fighting the really good fight, and destroyed our Ring.  We made a dark idol, threw it down, and said we've ended Evil.

We've given ourselves a Watchful Peace, an illusion of triumph.

What I HOPE for this:  with Osama gone, Barack Obama can get the nation focussed away from fear-mongering and war-talk, and get us back to building prosperity which will strengthen the world economy;  we can begin forming talks with the Middle East with a stronger hand, which we will use only to get them to take us seriously, before seeing that we really can be allies;  we can remove ourselves from Afghanistan and Iraq, and let them become the countries they wish to be and real partners with the U. S.;  we can stop raising our children in fear and tension, and teach them love, trust and compassion again; Obama - hopefully having only been distracted for so long by this operation - can focus on cleansing the Tea stains from our people; sanity can return.   We can use this Watchful Peace to actually destroy the subhuman Evil of separation and nationalism and capitalist greed that allowed a man to take the form of the Evil. 

That's my HOPE. 

Mom used to say, "Hope in one hand, shit in the other . . . see which fills up first."

The Change

No.  Not menopause. 

The change in this blog.

I'm sorry, but I simply can't put everything out there for a certain sick cyber-stalker to harrass me over.  I've just had enough of his vile, puerile and disgusting comments and his need to obsess over trying to convince me to take my own life.  Since, apparently, no one in blogger gives a damn about respecting their bloggers, and Google is terribly concerned that allowing the freedom to block a commentator could cut down on their life-giving spam, until I can find a blog platform that does allow the ability to block specific commenters and can move the content of this blog there, I have made it private and will open it only to certain people.

If the blog becomes a total echo chamber, thank the one known as Nixon Is Lord for creating the situation.   I simply won't be abused anymore, either by him or Blogger's lack of respect for the bloggers.

So, They Killed Bin Laden

Aside from being able to sneer at Republican'ts because Bush wasn't able to do it, it really doesn't accomplish much. 

You want to preserve peace and democracy?  Send Navy Seals to kill Sarah Palin and anyone who belongs to the Tea Party and/or is among the richest 1% of the U. S. population.