It's hard to get away from these ubiquitous bumper stickers. "Proud to be an American" they proclaim. "So what?" I reply.
Saying you're proud to be an American is like saying you're proud to have won the lottery. Unless you're an immigrant, you were lucky to have been born among the 5% of the earth's population that lives in North America between Canada and Mexico. So what's to be proud of?
You're proud to have a democratically elected President? Nope, that can't be it.
You're proud to live in a country free from religious dogma and insanity? Scratch that one.
You're proud we found Osama Bin Laden and brought him to justice? Hmmm.
You're proud to be represented on the world stage by a bright and articulate man like George W. Bush? Nahhh.
You're proud to have a government untainted by greed and corporate scandal? Not bloody likely.
Then you must be proud of our free, objective and unbiased mass media. No?
Then you must be taking pride in America's staunch refusal to surrender our basic liberties for the sake of "security." Not that either? What are you so proud of, Sparky?
Some people might say they're proud of the way America pulled together after 9-11. Not me. America pulled together, at least for a while, but that's exactly what I expected. At the risk of sounding like Peggy Noonan, it was right, and good. And it was no surprise.
What was the alternative? And when has a great tragedy not brought the American people together? Pulling together was the only option, and one cannot take pride for doing the right thing when there is no other option.
So, this judge in Massabama defends displaying the ten commandments in a public building by saying the ten commandments are the "moral foundation" of the law.
My ass.
For one thing, "thou shalt have no other gods before me" and "keep the sabbath day holy" are piss poor foundations for any kind of law in a pluralistic democracy. And that injunction against making or worshipping graven images? Which laws rely on this commandment as a "moral foundation?" How about "thou shalt not take the lord's name in vain?" I'd say that's a moral foundation for censorship, but not any kind of law I'd want to live under.
So, that's four out of ten commandments that have no bearing (or should have no bearing) on civil law. The others? They condemn killing, lying, stealing, adultery, envy (coveting) and disrespecting one's parents.
Funny thing about that though. People and civilizations down through history have had laws and customs against all of these things, even if they were never Christian. In fact, there are religious texts that predate the bible that contain moral injunctions against killing, lying, etc. So why don't we call the Rig Veda the moral foundation of the law? Hammurabi's code forbid stealing, so why don't we put up two-ton monuments featuring that landmark in human civilization? Because the agenda here is not to promote the "moral foundation of the law." The agenda is prosletyzing. The agenda is to spread the myth that America is a Christian nation. Ann Coulter, George Bush and Dick Armey all claim to be Christians. If that's Christianity, I'll take vanilla.
I made the mistake of listening to Rush Limbaugh for a few minutes this morning. He was blathering about North Korea's decision to pull out of the agreed framework for nuclear weapons control made with the Clinton administration. And do you know whose fault it is that North Korea decided to pull out of the agreement? Of course you do. Say it with me: "Bill Clinton."
Yes, according to der Porkmeister, it's Clinton's fault that North Korea decided not to honor a treaty, two years after Bill Clinton left office.
I suppose if North Korea decides to pursue a pre-emptive strike policy against South Korea, that will be Hillary's fault.
God, we live in a world full of ruthless, dirty, scumbags. Rush Limbaugh is their king.
How about a language lesson?
"Ruthless dirty scum bag."
En Francais: "Sac modifié impitoyable d'écume."
And German: "unbarmherziger schmutziger Abschaumbeutel."
That's a mouthful.
Let's say "flaming nazi gas bag" in French: "Sac nazi flamboyant de gaz."
And fittingly enough, in German, Rush's native language: "Lodernder nazi Gasbeutel."
Not too much going on today. My employer has this strange fixation on "efficiency" and "productivity" so they've asked me to cut back on the time spent on-line.
Fuckers.
It's not like I can't do my job and run a fabulous, well written blog at the same time. But I don't even have to do that. All I'm running is this crap. =>)
You know what site really used to be great? Suck.com. They're officially discontinued now, but somebody is still running "best of" type stuff from there. I used to read those guys first thing every morning. They rocked. Check it out for yourself, Yinchy.
In case you haven't heard it, the conservative epithet dujour is "Islamofascist." As in "Any muslim who opposes total war against Iraq is an Islamofascist."
After I heard it a few times, it dawned on me that most things Islamic have Christian analogs, so I was wondering what the Christian equivalent would be. Christianazis? Fucking psychos? Then it dawned on me: Evangelofascists. I can't think of a more fitting term.
