18 Wednesday Nov 2015
Posted in An Island in the Storm, Essays, fundamentalism, GOP lunacy, Immigration, Immigration, Islamophobia, Jesus, Muslim, Politics, right wing, Satire, Syria, teabaggers, terrorism, Uncategorized
08 Sunday Feb 2015
Posted in An Island in the Storm, fundamentalism, History, Islamophobia, Muslim, terrorism, World History
So we can start off with the “this is much ado about nothing” which of course begs the question, “why bother?”
Cuz a girl’s gotta write since it’s my passion, and there is always the miniscule hope, (for we all know that it springs eternal) that some poor bastard out there who was “damn the President for dissin’ Christians” will awaken from the fog of dissonance and the clear bell of enlightenment will ring forth: “I was once stupid and now I am not.”
Such is at least my justification for this essay.
I just happened to be tuned in the other morning as the President gave the traditional speech at the National Prayer Meetin’ which is held annually in Washington where all the sinners come to pretend they are doin’ their very best to apply God’s law as they slip another check from Exxon-Mobile and JP Morgan, into their $3000 suits.
The President, as we all know, has pretty much given up on the idea that facts, and good logic will get him anywhere, and as of late has pursued a policy of “screw you, try to stop me” and a general “fuck you” to Congressional Republicans who are fresh off the latest round of “ain’t got no bootstraps with which to pay for healthcare? Well die, you dog, and make room for those who do.”
As every good American knows, there’s the guys in the black hats (bad) and the guys in the white hats (good) always near to the scene. America is built upon this scenario and we have all the cheesy old westerns to prove it. Let us introduce the latest and best entry into the black hats category. A group known as ISIS (not to be confused with an Egyptian god) or ISIL if you have a clue what Levant means.
ISIL is a slipshod group of thugs who claim a perverted understanding of Islam which they use to justify their attempts to take over the world. Since their threat is pretty much everywhere, that means just about everyone else gets to be the guys in the white hats, but Merika of course always has to lead, cuz we are the super, super white hats.
Anyway, if you hadn’t noticed, we have a fair share of Arab Muslims (and Arabs in general) who live in the US, and boy I sure wouldn’t want to be them, since Americans are flighty people who tend to assess blame against whole swaths of people since it’s just easier. We learned that from the movies too, where it’s often best to “shoot first and ask questions later.” Anyway, even the dumbest of President (that would be you Dubya) have realized that it’s really not a good idea to let the great stupid mobs of American whiteness carry on in this manner, and so they are always at pains of ‘splainin’ to the stupid white people that NOT ALL ARABS ARE MUSLIMS AND MORE IMPORTANT NOT ALL MUSLIMS ARE KILLERS. In fact the huge majority are not, but are just peace-loving, family-seeking individuals like you and me.
Now Dubya can say nice things about Arab Muslims, and even hold hands with them, and nobody thinks a thing bad about it. 
He can even share a short peck and not even be thought particularly gay. Just good old American manners.
And he can say all kinds of nice things about Muslims to remind dumb American white people that it’s never a good idea to paint a brush too broad.
“Am
erica treasures the relationship we have with our many Muslim friends, and we respect the vibrant faith of Islam which inspires countless individuals to lead lives of honesty, integrity, and morality. This year, may Eid also be a time in which we recognize the values of progress, pluralism, and acceptance that bind us together as a Nation and a global community. By working together to advance mutual understanding, we point the way to a brighter future for all.” Presidential Message Eid al-Fitr December 5, 2002
But when President Obama reminds us that there are bad people in all religions historically who have done really bad things
Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history. And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ. . .So this is not unique to one group or one religion. There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith. In today’s world, when hate groups have their own Twitter accounts and bigotry can fester in hidden places in cyberspace, it can be even harder to counteract such intolerance. But God compels us to try.
the hue and cry from the extreme right in this country rose like a phoenix, screaming that such utterly evil words had never been spoken in all of our democracy. Former Governor of Virginia, Jim Gillmore was “outraged” having never heard a more terrible thing from the lips of a President. Santorum and Limbaugh chimed in with their mortification of Christianity today being compared to the unspeakable ISIS killers. And on it went, the rallying cry being “this is not a moral equivalency!!”
And it was not suggested as such either, if you read the text.
It was meant to remind everyone that while the killings by ISIS are horrific, we as humans have been doing horrific things to each other since the inception of so-called civilization, and a good deal of it has been veiled in perverted religious beliefs. People find it most convenient to put on the mask of religion to disguise their blatant lust for power and to express their hatred and fear. It has always been so. ISIS is no different in that respect than all the others. It is no more heinous, no more bloody certainly, and no more representative of the faith it espouses than any of the others were.
A few examples should suffice.
African-Americans in this country were often burned at the stake during slavery and Jim Crow. If you don’t think it was done in the name of Christianity, then read the words of the Confederate Vice President Alexander Stevens:
[T]he first government ever instituted upon the principles in strict conformity to nature, and the ordination of Providence, in furnishing the materials of human society … With us, all of the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place. He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. The architect, in the construction of buildings, lays the foundation with the proper material-the granite; then comes the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is best, not only for the superior, but for the inferior race, that it should be so.
It is, indeed, in conformity with the ordinance of the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of His ordinances, or to question them. For His own purposes, He has made one race to differ from another, as He has made “one star to differ from another star in glory.” The great objects of humanity are best attained when there is conformity to His laws and decrees, in the formation of governments as well as in all things else. Our confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws.
The charred body of Jesse Washington pictured above was in 1905 in Waco. The deaths of countless other African-Americans during Jim Crow by lynching, by the KKK (which always has a “Christian” front), occured. George Wallace invoked the name of God dozens of times in his 1963 inaugural address where he also famously uttered the words, “Segregation now. . .segregation tomorrow. . .segregation forever.”
The extreme Right-Wingers will tell you that the Crusades were wars of defense. Yet the arguable owners of that land were Palestinians and Jews. Muslims lay claim based on Muhammad. Yet Christians have no real claim certainly any greater than Jews or Muslims. All claim the area as holy. Yet when the first Crusade ended, the city of Jerusalem was cleared of all non-Christians, and by cleared I mean murdered. Jews who barricaded themselves in their synagogues were burned to death and survivors sold into slavery. All told the Crusades occurred over about 200 years, ending in 1291 or so.
When Saladin recaptured Jerusalem, only then were Jews allowed to return and live in relative freedom. This was in 1187, nearly a hundred years later.
They claim that the Inquisition was “political” as if that means something.
In fact the Inquisition was instituted by Pope Innocent III and set up by Pope Gregory IX. Confessors to heresy were burned alive. In 1242 the Talmud was condemned and burnings of Jews began in France in 1288. The Inquisition was begun in Spain for fear of “secret Jews” and the Conversos (those that had converted at pain of death in the first place and were suspected of retaining their true Judaic beliefs). In Seville alone more than 700 Jews were burned to death. By the time it ended in 1808, nearly 32,000 died by fire.
And the Inquisition was not just in Spain and France. It spread to Portugal and then to New World colonies and throughout Asia as well.
We need not but mention the Troubles in Ireland in which religion was the division between sides. Or that of India/Pakistan again, where religion affiliation defined the sides.
It is not that religion perverts human souls, but that some small sick group humans use religion to perpetrate their own evils upon the world.
President Obama, in the hopes of tamping down the ugly nativism that is so beginning to plague this nation with its ugly hate, attempted to remind us that we all have blood upon our hands. ISIS is but the latest in a long line of evil people doing evil things in the name of their perverted version of God.
** Let me recommend Jeff Sharlet’s book The Family which documents the shady and weird folks behind the National Prayer Breakfast.
**Also a great read is Karen Armstrong’s Fields of Blood which argues that religion has played a lesser role in most violence historically, however much it may have been the cover story. I’ve not read this but I’ve read others of hers and she is a uniquely qualified religious scholar who is highly respected for her scholarship. She was once a nun herself.
09 Thursday Aug 2012
Posted in Editorials, GOP, Islamophobia, Muslim, terrorism
Tags
To say that America is a violent country is to say nothing new. To say that the a large number of fringe groups dedicated to hate of one kind or another inhabit our country is also to say nothing very new.
We continue to be subjected to white supremacist groups and nothing has changed much except that perhaps we don’t pay much attention to them, although their numbers have, I believe, been on the increase.
I’m not one to reprint other people’s work and dust off my hands, thinking, “well, there’s another post completed,” but Juan Cole is someone you should pay attention to regularly, both because of his superb reporting, but also for his superb analysis.
Usually I would point you to his post, but I think that it is better to reprint it here. Have you thought about how the press reports on incidents of internal terrorism? Juan has. And you should listen:
Top Ten Differences between White Terrorists and Others:
1. White terrorists are called “gunmen.” What does that even mean? A person with a gun? Wouldn’t that be, like, everyone in the US? Other terrorists are called, like, “terrorists.”
2. White terrorists are “troubled loners.” Other terrorists are always suspected of being part of a global plot, even when they are obviously troubled loners.
3. Doing a study on the danger of white terrorists at the Department of Homeland Security will get you sidelined by angry white Congressmen. Doing studies on other kinds of terrorists is a guaranteed promotion.
4. The family of a white terrorist is interviewed, weeping as they wonder where he went wrong. The families of other terrorists are almost never interviewed.
5. White terrorists are part of a “fringe.” Other terrorists are apparently mainstream.
6. White terrorists are random events, like tornadoes. Other terrorists are long-running conspiracies.
7. White terrorists are never called “white.” But other terrorists are given ethnic affiliations.
8. Nobody thinks white terrorists are typical of white people. But other terrorists are considered paragons of their societies.
9. White terrorists are alcoholics, addicts or mentally ill. Other terrorists are apparently clean-living and perfectly sane.
10. There is nothing you can do about white terrorists. Gun control won’t stop them. No policy you could make, no government program, could possibly have an impact on them. But hundreds of billions of dollars must be spent on police and on the Department of Defense, and on TSA, which must virtually strip search 60 million people a year, to deal with other terrorists.
Kind of brings you up short doesn’t it?
And it would be well worth your time to read about the culture of hate that is being cultivated in this country by the rich, whose interests are not at all patriotic but who use pursue Muslim hate as a means to frighten unsuspecting Americans into supporting them, and thus giving them the power base they need for their real agenda.
Believe it or not, there are wealthy interests in this country who have much to gain from continued and increased violence in the Middle East and elsewhere.
It’s disheartening yet predictable that sadly uneducated and malleable individuals can become enamored of hate-centered groups. It is more than likely that the latest example, Mr. Page, thought he was striking out at Muslims, utterly and stupidly unaware that Sikhs are not Muslims at all.
It is worse than disheartening when we hear various elected officials appear to fuel the fire by finding a Islamic jihadist under nearly every bed. The fact that most of these hate-spewers are Republican is probably predictable given their ties to the interests who would promote surreptitiously an agenda of war.
We cannot keep ignoring these people as irritating nuisances. They are dangerous and must be stood up against everywhere.
On a lighter note, Juan Cole has a lighter side: I thought this was cute.
Photograph on road from Tripoli to Misrata, Libya, May, 2012, by Juan Cole
06 Monday Aug 2012
Posted in 2nd Amendment, Asian, Election 2012, GOP, Humor, Individual Rights, Islamophobia, LifeStyle, meteorology, Mitt Romney, Muslim, Psychology, Satire, teabaggers, terrorism, Voting, What's Up?
Tags
Boston Review, Bryan Fischer, climate change, GOP, gun control, Islamophobia, James Inhofe, lifestyle, Mitt Romney, religious right
Yes no doubt it is. Just as La Pierre and his band of gun-sodden nuts. After all, guns don’t kill, people do–with guns.
And for the Breitbart wannabes out there who were sure this was some Obama-induced Islamic terrorist. . . .first go learn some history, and then shut the F**K up.
And the senseless killing continues perpetrated by mentally ill individuals who find it oh so easy to purchase the weaponry they desire to wreak havoc on innocents.
How sick of this need we get before we wake up?
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Because I have fabulously bright and well read readers, I invite you to a website that I suspect many of you will thoroughly enjoy. It’s called the Boston Review, and comes out I believe 4-6 times a year. You can of course subscribe to a hard copy but I think you can read all or most of it online. This month’s subject is: Under the Influence: Politicians listen to money rather than to the public’s preferences. An opening article starts the discussion and then others respond with articles of their own. Plus there is more. Go take a look.
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I have come to the very important conclusion that being a leveraged-buyout artist ala Willard, must be a job that any moron can do. Why you say?
Because every which way I turn, Willard manages to screw the pooch. I mean has anyone ever run a worse campaign to date? His attempt to turn the lawsuit filed by the Obama Administration against the new voting law that seriously shortens the time average people have to vote into some anti-military thing is falling on deaf ears. Perhaps, and finally, people are starting to understand that with Willard it is noun, verb, lie whenever he opens his mouth.
Similarly Willard has come out against tax credits for wind energy, something that is insane in a state like Iowa which was still considered a toss-up. Wind energy accounts for some 20% of electric power in Iowa and supports several thousand jobs. Nice job dunce!
So headhunters! Call me! I can leverage all day!
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Some people are no longer worth picking on because they have lost every last cell of common sense and gone over to the willy-wonka crazy tent. Such a one is Bryan Fischer, the dude who waxes all too often on the growing fascism of the President. Today Bryan told us that a Saudi woman who competes in judo is nothing more than way of promoting sharia law, something he claims is now enshrined in the Olympics.
I bet if you asked his mom, you’d find out that Bryan ate paste as a child. He has all the symptoms of paste syndrome you know–wild leaps of fantasy, followed by long bouts of crying.
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Oh, gosh, it’s so hard to decide who to give the YOU’RE STUPID AS HELL AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT, award for the week. I think I’ll give it to that perennial idiot, James Inhofe, senator from the burning state of Oklahoma. Given the awful weather of the year, and the growing and uncontradicted reports of global warming, Mr stupid pants came up with this intellectual response:
“It gets cold, it gets warmer, it gets colder, gets warmer. God is still up there, and I think it’ll continue in the future.”
Another paste eater for sure.
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If ya didn’t hear, our new best friend, Curiosity Rover landed softly on Mars and is busy going about its job. You can follow her at Twitter: Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity. She’s a her, cuz I said so.
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There are 12 rules to being a human being. Bet you didn’t know that. There are though, and if you don’t believe me, go over to Mark and Angel’s and see. I wouldn’t lie ya know.
Life lessons. Don’t miss them.
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Scott Erb over at World in Motion has a great post on givers versus takers. And I want you to know I stole this from the post. I wouldn’t lie to ya, like I said.
Yeah, someday they will wake up. Hopefully before it’s too late.
We’re having some brokeback tacos for dinner with guacamole and green chile salsa. And I need to get into the kitchen and start makin’ it. If you would like thee recipes just head on over to What’s On the Stove? and you can find ’em with little efforts.
Have a good one.
10 Tuesday Jan 2012
Posted in Barack Obama, Election 2012, Environment, Gay Rights, Humor, Islamophobia, meteorology, Muslim, Rick Santorum, Satire, What's Up?
New Hampshirites go to the polls today to determine which flav of the week they are hungry for. Ask them next week, and they might well change their mind. For folks who are in love with “things as they are/were/always have been” GOP voters these days sure seem uncertain of little else but what state they reside in.
We are tempted to spend some time in the kitchen making snacks so we can sit noshing as the returns come forth. Will it be another nail-biter like Iowa? Will Santorum’s Google problem catch up with the staid Catholic prude? Will Newt sit in the middle of the street in diapers and bawl his head off? Or will Mittens try rap as a means to communicate with the masses?
I guess my biggest question is whether or not Newt gets it. Has it dawned on Pillsbury DB that he is dead in the water? Is he simply engaged in a Shermanesque slash and burn campaign to destroy the man he thinks took him down? He is doing the Democrats work for them, and of course that is great. Can the Establishment GOP rein him in other than by assassination at this point? lets
My second question is whether Jon Huntsman is just getting his name out there in anticipation of 2016, or is he angling for the Establishment to turn his way now that Romney is starting to flounder a bit?
What is clear is that there is now an answer to why Romney avoided interviews and other unscripted situations up until he was forced to it by Newt’s surge. He is a bit undisciplined. Not a bit. A lot. He comes off in debates as childish and as some teacher’s pet sorta brat when he doesn’t get his way. He also let’s go with stupid crap like: “I’m running for President, for God’s sake!”, “I like to fire people,” “I’m proud I forced him to take a mortgage out on his house to beat me,” and other assorted gems that prove that rich people like me live by way different rules than you.
Me thinks that Santorum’s moment in the sun was just that, a moment. Odds are that second place is gonna be a fight between Dr. Paul and Huntsman. His homophobic theocratic crap will play much better in South Carolina. Too bad DeMint don’t like him. He could do well there, but probably won’t. Newt is pinning his hopes there as is Ricky P. You remember Ricky P don’t ha?
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I must say, I do try to understand those folks who hold opinions that I find utterly mad. I do. I try to figure out what set of basics one starts with, from which one can build a house of cards that lead to whatever cockamamie conclusion that I am scratching my head about. There is an interesting article over at Religious Dispatches about how and why the likes of Santorum and others come to their weird explanations as to why marriage equality is so dangerous to life on Mars. Well thought out and well written.
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Just a question. How are the climate nay-sayers explaining this winter? I haven’t heard a peep out of them. Usually about this time of year one hears the stupid “yeah, it’s 15 below and we have three feet of snow in Virginia–so much for global warming!” Strangely they aren’t explaining this nation wide warmth and lack of snow. Hmmmm.
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The Right, including the GOP panderers are always hot to trot when it comes to sabre rattling against “Islamic Jihadists”. And of course it sets a tone that is anything but helpful. There is a really nice article by Anouar Majid at Informed Comment about the Arab Spring, and the opportunities to forge a better relationship between Americans and Muslims. Do read.
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You may have missed this. Here in Iowa, they broke into regular programming to give the news. Todd Palin has endorsed Newt Gingrich. Along with Christine O’Donnell opting for Mittens, I can’t wait for who Ronald McDonald is gonna choose. I mean, millions four people want to know.
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This just in. The Blaze has gained access to the pictures, and they are up in arms. I mean, the inhumanity of it all. Exclusive here, you can see the photos of the extravaganza that taxpayers were forced to pay. The Obama’s had a Halloween party in 2009, replete with costumes and the usual riffraff from Hollywood, including JOHNNY DEPP dressed as the Mad Hatter. Register your anger now.
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What’s on the Stove? Well, we got the taste for a Reuben sandwich so I got some corned beef, some sauerkraut, some high-grade Emanthaler swiss cheese, so rye bread, and of course some homemade thousand island dressing (which will be posted today). Weep on my dears.
14 Wednesday Dec 2011
Posted in Astronomy, Election 2012, GOP, Humor, Islamophobia, Muslim, Physics, Satire, teabaggers, What's Up?
Tags
Election 2012, God Particle, GOP, Higgs-Boson particle, Islamophobia, Phyllis Schlafly, right-wing hate, rightwing nuts, teabaggers
I’ve said this before. In a manner of speaking. I’ve theorized that the GOP elite is basically throwing this election by giving the extremists within the party control. Of course this presupposes that they will flame up and then die.
Some are starting to agree with me, albeit from a completely different angle.
They see the landscape, and they wonder: why in the world is the GOP intent on killing itself? They are on the wrong side of so many issues that it is barely possible to remember them all. They are out of touch with mainstream America.
They conclude that this is a party that is basically re-living the Goldwater years. They argue that Goldwater and his insiders did not seriously expect to win the election, but they were fighting for control of the party.
This is what some now see as going on with the GOP. Rather than the insiders letting the TeaNutz® run the party over the cliff, and then picking up the pieces and going on as usual, they see the TeaNutz® ignoring a mainstream electorate precisely because it has yet to be educated in the finer points of Teanuttery. Like Goldwater, they believe that this is a process, and they must suffer the loss in order to solidify their control, and grow.
So says Jeffrey Toobin. He argues that the madness might be explained by looking at the Goldwater election and it’s deeply embedded goal of turning this country away from New Deal policies and toward the kinds of policies favored by Tea folk today, namely a restructuring or elimination of social programs designed to provide safety nets to citizens.
Paul Waldman makes essentially the same argument. He, however, nuances it in suggesting that the delusion of some in the GOP is such that they really think that what they believe is so obviously correct, than any candidate they nominate will surely get that across to the public.
In any event, these theories do work to explain, from one side or the other what has otherwise been inexplicable: why the GOP seems determined to remain utterly out of touch with the opinions of most in the country.
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Hey, think fast. What has the mass of 125 hydrogen atoms?
Give up?
Hint: God is watching!
It’s the Higgs-Boson. Yep physicists think they may have located the elusive bugger.
Life will never be the same.
I’m may have to take the day off just to figure out how my life will be changing.
I can’t wait to find out. But don’t forget, they still don’t have the 3-sigma statistical significance, so we still have time to shop for Christmas!
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And then there are those who do not seek irrelevance, but have it thrust upon them. Sometimes they seek it too.
WorldNetDaily, that bastion of true-blue Christianist bible-thumping rectitude, decided to beat a dead horse publicly with a banner fly over a football stadium during a game. The subject: why, the imposter in the White House: the non-citizen, one Obama.
Zee problem?
God forgot to tell them the dome was closed.
Oh Drat!
Foiled again!
God knows a good joke when He sees one.
Refund?
Oh, don’t forget to order your “freedom seeds” for your “freedom garden” and get your “freedom gold” from Beck’s gold meisters.
Armageddon is a comin’ doncha know.
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Speakin’ of hate, old (and I do mean that, she is OLD) Phyllis Schlafly’s new group, Eagle Forum, has a manifesto it is asking Congressional candidates to sign, ala Grover Norquist. Oh the list is so precious. Come take a look. (From Joe.My.)
1. Will you vote to protect the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)?
2. Will you vote for federal school appropriations to require informed, written parental consent for curricula, surveys, classes or books that may be privacy-invading or offensive to religion or conscience?
3. Will you support legislation for Congress to use its Article III power vote to deny jurisdiction to the federal courts over areas where we don’t trust them, namely, the definition of marriage, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Ten Commandments, the Cross on veterans’ memorials, and the Boy Scouts?
4. Will you vote to prohibit the federal courts from hearing challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) or similar state laws respecting the definition of marriage?
5. Will you oppose federal hate crimes laws?
6. Will you vote against any legislation to help Puerto Rico to become a state?
7. Will you vote against any legislation to pretend that the District of Columbia is a state or entitled to a state’s representation in Congress?
8. Will you vote to end federal funding of so-called bilingual education (teaching immigrant children in their native languages) which the voters of CA, AZ, and MA have rejected?
9. Will you vote to revoke the citizenship of naturalized citizens who betray their oath of U.S. citizenship by claiming “dual citizenship” with their native country?
10. Will you support federal funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?
There are more, just suppress your gag reflex.
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Yesterday, we reported on the withdrawal by some 65 or more companies of ads for a Muslim reality show. We have located a full list of all those companies that withdrew their ads. While it may be hard to withdraw your patronage from them all, please do the best you can, and let them know via e-mail or in person your displeasure at those who help to foment hatred in this country.
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Enjoy your day.
13 Tuesday Dec 2011
Posted in African American, Corporate America, Editorials, Islamophobia, Muslim, racism, terrorism, US Ethnic Issues
I spent most of my life living in Michigan. And I spent a year living in Dearborn, Michigan under the mayorship of Orville Hubbard, pictured at the right.
So I have some knowledge.
Dearborn, is probably like a lot of small towns. If you look at the history of any small town, you will probably find some fascinating changes that have occurred over the time span of the 1700’s to today.
But few would exhibit the amazing changes that have occurred in this seemingly unimportant suburban community outside Detroit, Michigan.
Originally of course, much of Dearborn was occupied by members of the Algonquin family of tribes. But that soon changed with America’s revolution, and white folks populated the area and named it after Revolutionary patriot and Secretary of State under Jefferson, Henry Dearborn.
For a long time Dearborn was of no consequence. That was until areas surrounding it (still in farm land) caught the eye of resident, Henry Ford. Some of that land became the Ford estate, the Ford Motor Company World Headquarters (The Glass House), Ford Proving Grounds. People still come there to see the Ford Museum, which features so much stuff that I can’t begin to tell describe it all.
Along came a man named Orville Hubbard who became Mayor in 1942 and retained that job until 1978 (I lived there in 1972-73 I believe).
Now you have to recall that Detroit at that time was in its growing pains. Car companies thrived in and about the city, which steel was forged at the Rouge plant down the river. Building cars was big business. And African-Americans, beaten down by Jim Crow laws throughout the South were migrating north to find a better life. Many found it in Detroit where employment in the factories were plentiful.
A few years later, in the aftermath of President Kennedy’s assassination, the Civil Rights Act was passed and then the Voting Rights Act.
Orville looked out upon this landscape, and came to a few conclusions. Hubbard has been styled by some as the “suburban face of resistance to racial integration.” And he was.
He had an abiding and hideous hatred of African-Americans. He was all that one would expect of a Southern plantation owner and more. He describes being in Haiti in the Marines and claims they practiced cannibalism, even “eating a few Marines.” He once called the “bullet-ridden body” of a black man found in the city as “a clear case of suicide” and ordered the case closed. He ordered his local police to “shoot looters on sight” during the 1967 insurrection in Detroit.
The slogan of his administration which continued until 1978, was “Keep Dearborn Clean” which was widely recognized to mean, “Keep Dearborn White.”
The way it worked was simply this: white folks found “reasons” never to sell to blacks, and whites who were rumored to be doing that were vandalized. Of course he didn’t think much better of Jews or the Irish, and later, the Arabs either.
The Arabs that first moved into Dearborn were almost all Lebanese Christians. They were later followed by Muslims from various countries. After Hubbards retirement blacks slowly moved in, but today, still nearly 85% of the population is “white”. However, 34% of that “white” demographic is Arab.
The largest Mosque in North America is found there.
And well, sadly it has now become the focus of hatred in another vein.
I don’t know much about the show. Actually I know nothing other than there is a “reality” based show about Muslim families in Dearborn, and how they incorporate their faith with their patriotism for America. As with all commercial television shows, it has corporate sponsors who buy ad time (known as commercials) throughout the program.
What is insane, is the FFA objects to the show because it fails to present Muslims as terrorists! In other words, the show is not “fair and balanced” showing only law-abiding, patriotic, good citizens.
Well, it’s all insane. This is bigotry at its worst. This is un-American. This is absurd. It is reprehensible. It cannot be allowed to stand.
Go to SignOn.org to register your anger.
Or go to Lowe’s Facebook page: and register your views directly.
**Orville Hubbard: the ghost that still haunts Dearborn Wikipedia: Dearborn Michigan
Existential Ennui 