sadder landmark

dead Iraqis: previous post x 20? x30? x40? x50? who knows?

sad landmark

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A Guide To Campaign English

The following translations may be helpful to observers of the 2008 elections:

"Obama is inexperienced" = Obama is a negro and therefore can't be trusted (funny, no one ever called John Edwards inexperienced. why is that??)
"Obama is arrogant" = Obama is an uppity ni**er

Presidential Candidate Embarassed by Association to Bigoted Institution

"I have always had a deep personal faith that was rooted in the Methodist church in large measure because I was christened into it, I grew up in it. But, it also very much reflected how I thought about faith as I matured. You know, if you look at the Methodist book of discipline it talks about the four contributing streams of faith -- scripture, tradition, experience and reason. I always resonated to the fact that it was both revelatory and scripture-based but that you were invited to use your power of reason to think through your faith and to work through what it meant to you and how you would live it in your daily life."
--Hillary Clinton

"While persons set apart by the Church for ordained ministry are subject to all the frailties of the human condition and the pressures of society, they are required to maintain the highest standards of holy living in the world. The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Therefore self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church.....The General Council on Finance and Administration of The United Methodist Church] shall be responsible for ensuring that no board, agency, committee, commission, or council shall give United Methodist funds to any gay caucus or group, or otherwise use such funds to promote the acceptance of homosexuality. The council shall have the right to stop such expenditures. "
--From the Book of Discipline of the Methodist Church.

And now some fresh air:
“I refuse to limit my God, to lock God into my cultural understandings because culture is fickle,” Wright said. “And culture is often wrong. Culture was wrong about slavery. Culture was wrong about women. Culture was wrong about Africans and Indians, and culture was wrong about Christ,” he said. “I have been the pariah among many of my clergy colleagues who somehow see me as defective or not quite saved because I won’t join them in their homophobic gay bashing and misquoting of scripture.” (Rev. Jeremiah Wright)

Link removed

Well it saddens me a little but I've removed the link on my blogroll to Joe.My.God. I've enjoyed reading the blog for a while now, but I think it has crossed the line recently and I can't really endorse it even for entertainment.

It's proved recently that racism is indeed rampant in the gay male community, a sad fact I guess I had forgotten. Sorry Joe. I can suffer through the shilling for Hillary but not the racism.

You Have To Want It To Be Different

Barack Obama delivered an important speech today on race in America and the racial issues surrounding his campaign.

There's a couple things in his speech I disagree with, but I have to say I am truly impressed with it. In the face of all the Hillary Clinton supporters flinging mud and negativity at his campaign, Obama consistently makes the same point over and over again: if you want change to come, you have to find common ground to stand with all people and make the effort to make things different.

Having watched a few of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's speeches floating around on the internets (and one can guess which campaign is helping to distribute these) I'm struck by how wide the gulf is between those who share Rev. Wright's point of view--and frankly I find far more to agree with in his fiery sermons than to disagree with--and those who are offended by them. I think Obama has struck an important balance in his approach to this controversy.

As a person with strong beliefs far to the left of the general point of view, I'm willing to set my disbelief and distrust aside and say I will vote for this man, with hope, and optimism. I call on those with opinions far to the right of me, or of Barack Obama even, to meet me in that middle ground.

I don't agree with Obama's statement herein on Israel; but you know what? Somebody with my beliefs on the middle east isn't going to be elected president of the united states.

It is so time for change, and Barack Obama is perhaps the only person who can deliver us from the dire precipice we find ourselves on.

Vietnam-War Avoider Has Career Regret

From a George Bush videoconference with military leaders in Afghanistan:

"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."

"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," Bush said.

If only he had stayed home reading Rudyard Kipling instead of being responsible for the murder of thousands.

wow.

Keith Obermann really calls out Hillary Clinton over Geraldine Ferraro. Impressive.

of seminaries, yeshivas, and madrassas

So just to get it out of the way, a massacre of students in a school is a pretty awful thing, even if that school was a training ground for the racist ultra-zionist Israeli settler movement. It's despressing to think that the soul-deadening mathematical response is necessary, but I point out that Israel just killed a hundred people in Gaza, certainly no less an awful thing, the disgusting display of official Israeli "regret" at civilian casualty notwithstanding. (I always learned that regretting something meant you intended not to do it again. The Israeli "regret" is complete and utter racist bullshit.)

All of that said I find it fascinating that the attack on the school was immediately reported as an attack on a seminary. One could argue that seminary is a fair translation for yeshiva. But then isn't it a fair translation for madrassa as well?

A seminary is full of earnest young spiritual seekers, learning the details of faith so that they might commit their lives to prayer and betterment of mankind. A yeshiva is a walled-off temple of mystery, where weirdly-dressed quaint, if somewhat distasteful strangers go to engage in weird mumbling, seeking ancient knowledge to preserve their alien presence in the world of normal people. A madrassa is a nest of terrorist vipers, where they keep their machine guns and scimitars (the ones for cutting off human heads), where crazed and delusional fanatics rouse themselves into an anti-human frenzy before going off and murdering innocents.

The problem here is that seminaries, yeshivas, and madrassas are all the same thing, just as all blood is red. It's really the problem, isn't it, with discussions of the middle east, that the mathematics of this tragedy and its translation are in the hands of manipulators, liars, and killers, and the ones who love them.

dearth of posts

Sorry so little posting of late. Been spending more time on my other blog, which keeps me pretty happy. Anyway, check it out.

Lessee: good news, Obama leads in delegate counts. Bad news, Clinton is still in the race. It's pretty discouraging to see her machine in action. I just don't understand how people fall for it. Bad news, war in Iraq still on. Good news, kittens are still cute.