A few days ago I posted about a group of ‘Christians’ who were protesting at US soldier’s funerals, because they felt that our soldiers were dying for opposing Christ. Today the feckless liar Sean Hannity blamed these protests on the “anti-war” left, instead of the wacko religious right — who actually held the protest.
I am constantly amazed that people listen to and believe blowhards like Hannity and Limbaugh — these people have no loyalty to the truth or anything approaching it. They are the worst of what has become of civic dialogue in our country. Under Roman law their tongues would have been cut out and they would have been banned from the city.
Well, it only took two days, but finally a Christian group is blaming the destruction of New Orleans on gays:
Just days before “Southern Decadence”, an annual homosexual celebration attracting tens of thousands of people to the French Quarters section of New Orleans, an act of God destroys the city.
May this act of God cause us all to think about what we tolerate in our city limits, and bring us trembling before the throne of Almighty God
Why is it that these people will exploit any tragedy to peddle their bigotry and hate? No, the increase in hurricanes isn’t caused by global warming and warm water shifts, but be cause God is mad at New Orleans — before he was mad at Indonesia, before that New York — God’s wrath seems to be pretty random, one would think he’d be smiting San Francisco or the Supreme Court building. Too bad idiocy is not a sin.
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At Eschaton there’s a fascinating post about coverage of the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. Atrios shows two news photos of people gathering food to survive. In one the caption refers to the participants “finding” food, in the other the caption refers to the participant “looting” food. The only visible difference is the looter is black and the finders are white.
These people are trying to survive in an almost impossible situation, and that the theft of food for self preservation is a moral question which goes back thousands of years. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the current media would find any excuse to exploit people’s suffering to create polarizing images and encourage racial stereotypes.
Yep, I guess you can’t trust those people — they have no moral fiber and are only concerned about their immediate needs; it’s no wonder most Americans don’t trust them — but what do you expect of the media.
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Atrios, and others, have mentioned the slapdown given to Pat Robertson by Jack Van Impe.
As someone who has always been fascinated by America’s preoccupation with eschatology, I used to watch Jack Van Impe’s television show, “Jack Van Impe Presents”, every week or so. During his show Jack, and his wife Rexella, would recap the recent news in terms of end times prophesy. There’s little doubt that Jack is a bit out there, as he nearly orgasms with joy at the end of the world. But Jack is the more traditional end times kinda guy — he says: “the end is coming; here’s proof”, and “you better make things right between you and Christ”. Not only is it his right to say these things, but there is something more honest about his presentation then those like Pat Robertson. Robertson says “the end is coming” and “to make things right give me and my friends political power”. So it shouldn’t have been unexpected to here Jack Van Impe call Robertson on his unchristian behavior:
Not only that, but Mr. Robertson, you are pro-life, and yet you wanted the members of the Supreme Court to die last year, and now the president of Venezuela. We believe this book: Thou shalt not kill; Exodus 20, verse 13. And my Bible says that this is wrong, and I want to challenge you right now to change your ways. Because we as Christians do not need an Osami [sic] Bin Laden leading us.
Robertson, and his ilk, are nothing but political hacks trying to assert power through religion. Jack Van Impe may be a bit touched but he’s a true believer.
According to the US census bureau the US poverty rate continues to rise:
An extra 1.1 million Americans dropped below the poverty line last year, according to the US Census Bureau. There were 37 million people living in poverty in 2004, up 12.7% from the previous year.
And of course, the rich get richer:
The ratio of average CEO pay to the average pay of a production (i.e., non-management) worker was 431-to-1, up from 301-to-1 in 2003, according to “Executive Excess,” an annual report released Tuesday by the liberal research groups United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies.
I understand that most Americans feel as though they will someday be rich, but given these statistics — they are more then likely to be poor.
The UN is disturbed that US abstinence programs in Africa are helping to spread AIDS:
Stephen Lewis, the U.N. secretary-general’s special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, said Christian ideology was driving Washington’s AIDS assistance program known as PEPFAR with disastrous results such as a shortage of condoms in Uganda.
Yes — Our policy seems to be that if you do have sex you deserve to die horribly — rather then have a condom. How in the name of all that is holy can these people live with themselves?
Over at Pandagon there’s a more ironic post on the same topic. . . .
My thoughts and hopes are with the people of Louisiana and Mississippi.
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