Whiners
As I watch the Moslems in various countries riot because a Danish paper printed a cartoon they took offense to, the phrase that keeps running through my head is "What a bunch of fucking whiners."
As always, they are very good at dishing it out, but do the same to them, and it's riots and terrorist acts and demands for global respect of their beliefs.
Forget the fact that they have no respect for the beliefs of others. Forget the fact that, as with so many in all cultures who rant and rave and turn to violence in response to feeling disrepected, those who protest the loudest and most reactively and violently are those who have done nothing to deserve respect in the first place.
Wanna talk about insults? Wanna talk about stereotypes? Let's talk about all the anti-semitic--anti-Jewish--cartoons published in Arab and other Moslem newspapers and books, shall we?
First, a look at 'traditional' anti-Semitism, that which has been going on pretty much from the beginning, institutionalized by the Egyptians, followed by the Greeks and Romans, and cheerily taken up by the emerging Christian Church, which was far more likely to skewer the cheeks of others than turn their own.
In the late 19th century, the traditionally religious- and cultural tradition-based anti-Semitisim (anti-Judaism) evolved into a more nationalist and institutionalized hatred of Jews, period, regardless of where they live and how religious they are. Most visible in Europe and the Middle East (and from there spreading to all countries which have sizeable Moslem populations) this new anti-Semitisim is highly politicized and has in fact become doctrine in countries in the Middle East, including Iraq and Iran.
Along with being taught in the mosques and schools, and harangued from political platforms, the spread of this new anti-Semitisim has been fueled by anti-Jewish cartoons in Arab society, press, TV, radio and film (see also this example).
So, if I might be so bold, I suggest that those who are most offended by anti-Moslem cartoons take a deep breath, step back from the house or bus you just burned, and meditate on "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Put another way if you show no respect for people who hold other beliefs, why the hell should they respect you?
Oh. I forgot. Where dogma exists, rational thought ceases.
As for those papers who are pulling or considering pulling cartoons that do what cartoons do - make a humorous or political statement (by the cartoonist, if not the the paper's publishers), may I ask where you will draw the line in the future?
When you are dealing with Moslems who do not believe in free speech (well, other than speech that freely threatens the Jews and any non-Moslems who appear to in any way support Jews, which makes threatening the US and its non-Moslem citizens quite all right), or bow to any other dictatorship's demands, does that not make you no better than they are? Check out Jeff Jacoby's Today censors may be coming for some Mohammed cartoons; tomorrow it is your words and ideas they will silence.
Whiners. Of course, what makes it all so scary is that many of these whiners are psychos blinded by religion, a combination that has never turned out well. Especially when they are armed with weapons and IEDs and nuclear power.
In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. -- Thomas Jefferson
As always, they are very good at dishing it out, but do the same to them, and it's riots and terrorist acts and demands for global respect of their beliefs.
Forget the fact that they have no respect for the beliefs of others. Forget the fact that, as with so many in all cultures who rant and rave and turn to violence in response to feeling disrepected, those who protest the loudest and most reactively and violently are those who have done nothing to deserve respect in the first place.
Wanna talk about insults? Wanna talk about stereotypes? Let's talk about all the anti-semitic--anti-Jewish--cartoons published in Arab and other Moslem newspapers and books, shall we?
First, a look at 'traditional' anti-Semitism, that which has been going on pretty much from the beginning, institutionalized by the Egyptians, followed by the Greeks and Romans, and cheerily taken up by the emerging Christian Church, which was far more likely to skewer the cheeks of others than turn their own.
In the late 19th century, the traditionally religious- and cultural tradition-based anti-Semitisim (anti-Judaism) evolved into a more nationalist and institutionalized hatred of Jews, period, regardless of where they live and how religious they are. Most visible in Europe and the Middle East (and from there spreading to all countries which have sizeable Moslem populations) this new anti-Semitisim is highly politicized and has in fact become doctrine in countries in the Middle East, including Iraq and Iran.
Along with being taught in the mosques and schools, and harangued from political platforms, the spread of this new anti-Semitisim has been fueled by anti-Jewish cartoons in Arab society, press, TV, radio and film (see also this example).
So, if I might be so bold, I suggest that those who are most offended by anti-Moslem cartoons take a deep breath, step back from the house or bus you just burned, and meditate on "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Put another way if you show no respect for people who hold other beliefs, why the hell should they respect you?
Oh. I forgot. Where dogma exists, rational thought ceases.
As for those papers who are pulling or considering pulling cartoons that do what cartoons do - make a humorous or political statement (by the cartoonist, if not the the paper's publishers), may I ask where you will draw the line in the future?
When you are dealing with Moslems who do not believe in free speech (well, other than speech that freely threatens the Jews and any non-Moslems who appear to in any way support Jews, which makes threatening the US and its non-Moslem citizens quite all right), or bow to any other dictatorship's demands, does that not make you no better than they are? Check out Jeff Jacoby's Today censors may be coming for some Mohammed cartoons; tomorrow it is your words and ideas they will silence.
Whiners. Of course, what makes it all so scary is that many of these whiners are psychos blinded by religion, a combination that has never turned out well. Especially when they are armed with weapons and IEDs and nuclear power.
In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. -- Thomas Jefferson
posted by Melissa at 3:19 PM
4 Comments:
Yep!
As to anti american imperialism, that is a seperate issue, but the two have been conveniantly mixed together to fuel the blind fury.
Yep!
As to anti american imperialism, that is a seperate issue, but the two have been conveniantly mixed together to fuel the blind fury.
I've started reading your blog, and I must admit while I disagree a lot, I enjoy reading what you write because it is well-reasoned and not regurgitating a left-wing or right-wing party line.
I think one would have to be blind or a liar to not believe the Jews have been the most discriminated against and most maligned group of people in the history of the world. To deny the Holocaust is equally idiotic.
But, being a kind of religious nut, I think the reason is because they are God's people and will always belong to Him (because if He's God, He wouldn't break His word, would he?). The general populace seems to hate anything that is close to God, and that's why these idiots go around being anti-Semitic.
I don't think those pictures should have been published, but for a more general reason. I think religion should be respected - all religion as long as it is of good will. To me, that would certainly include the major religions of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Look, all three can't be right - that's obvious. But what they have in common are a lot of people who are trying to be good people and worship God within the terms of their religions.
What happens, though, is inevitably some chuckleheads get in a leadership position, and that's why we get nuts in all three of the religions. People who want to be true to God get taken in by these spiritual snakeoil salesmen, and before you know it we have homicide bombers and people who claim you will burn in hell unless you memorize every verse in the Bible.
That's no excuse, clearly. We all have the capability to reason and think for ourselves. So these morons who strap bombs to themselves can't claim later the devil or the imam made them do it. I'm Catholic, and if the Pope told me to do a homicide bombing, I'd tell him he could kiss my Irish-Sicilian posterior.
But that doesn't excuse these papers and other people from profaning what other people hold sacred. Two wrongs don't make a right. If they want alternative lifestyles, etc., to be reaspected, they need to set an example themselves by not mocking what other people hold sacred. There's plenty of anti-Catholic stuff in the media, probably only second to anti-Semitic stuff, and it pisses me off to no end. But my response isn't to burn an embasssy. It's to set an example by taking other people seriously and respecting them (and writing nutty irate letters to TV stations once in a while, but that's more to help me than change anything).
And if they have a shred of decency and compassion in their bones, they will return the respect and compassion. See, people don't have to agree to respect the value of one another, or to respect someone's beliefs. Saying someone is "wrong" is not disrespectful - that's theological and intellectual debate. But mocking someone and denigrating their beliefs is wrong, whether they be Jew, Muslim, or Christian.
Yeah, Jefferson didn't have a high opinion of organized religion, but I don't have a high opinion of him, so I guess he and I are even...lol
Very nice blog Melissa! It's refereshing to see people who think for themselves rather than repeating the politcally skewed talking heads on CNN or Fox. I'll be sure to check back in as I get a chance.
P.S. I found your blog from your reptile site. My son is a budding vet, and wants to add a snake to his collection of animals (which mom and dad and the other kids help take care of, of course - 2 dogs, 2 cats, 2 mallard ducks, 2 gerbils, and a couple of tropical fish tanks - it's like Noah's ark here), so I was researching ball pythons and came across your site (which is awesome, btw).
>>People who want to be true to God get taken in by these spiritual snakeoil salesmen,
Hey! Why do snakes keep getting maligned?! They have nothing to with charismatic salesmen ripping off the gullibles, or charismatic (and often psychopathic) religious leaders more into empire building than dispensing the milk of lovingkindness.
(One of the reasons I started getting fed up with author Dean R. Koontz was because he always referred to his bad guy's "reptilian brain", as if the good guys weren't equally outfitted with their own reptilian complex. That, and he got way too formulaic. But, I digress... ;)
>>We all have the capability to reason and think for ourselves.
Well, apparently not! I mean, I've been sort of hoping that there is some gene defect in those who follow the extremist teachings of any religious leader, regardless of which god or goddess said leader is demanding all others follow. What is it they say about common sense being anything but common? ;)
>>But that doesn't excuse these papers and other people from profaning what other people hold sacred. Two wrongs don't make a right. If they want alternative lifestyles, etc., to be respected, they need to set an example themselves by not mocking what other people hold sacred.
But doesn't that work both ways? Instead of rioting and destroying property and killing people and threatening to kill Others, whatever happened to taking the high road? To teach by teaching, not by firebombing?
But, of course, at least when it comes to the vast majority of Moslems, and the Moslem-controlled media, it still is a matter of "do as we demand, not as we do." Islam has never respected other religions, other than as an attempt to get Others to convert. Since that proved to be of only limited effectiveness, and what inroads they made into the West was successfully reversed several centuries ago, things have been simmering ever since. Now, instead of being armed with swords and scimitars and rudimentary canon, they are armed with bombs and worse.
The majority of the world's Moslems live in countries with repressive regimes, be the heads of government be elected or to the sultanate born. Many millions have chosen to live leave those countries to go live where there are better paying jobs, schools, higher education, better health care. Hey! That's great! I'm all for enjoying the multicultural experience.
But many of these people are not happy living in democratic or republican or constitutional or parliamentary figurehead monarchies. They are not happy because they don't like the way the Infidels dress, talk, what they watch or read, their art or anything else. They don't like the government, they don't like free press and they don't like free press - except, of course, what they deem acceptable, like slamming the country they live in and all the Infidels living in and outside of it.
I'm guessing you can probably guess what I think should be done about that, right? Yes, indeed. Send all the "we want to live here but YOU have to change everything you are and believe in to be like US" back to where they came from. If they've long been naturalized people who immigrated several generations ago, give them a choice: Indonesia, or Saudi Arabia. Then, bye bye! If they want to live in a repressive Islamic regime, let them. I don't.
Ditto to living in a repressive Christian regime, of course. Or a repressive any regime. But the bottom line is, I chose to live where, while I don't always agree with what the people we have elected do with the temporary power we give them, I really can't think of any country that sounds any better. (That wind rustling the trees outside was Canada breathing a sigh of relief. :)
If the U.S., England, The Netherlands, or France are such terrible places for ex-pat Sauds, Egyptian, Lebanese, Syrian, Indonesians, etc., to raise their children, leave. No jobs there in France and you're tired of living on the French dole? Leave. Don't like pictures of movie stars on theater marquees? Leave. Don't like the fact that "free press" means "Not controlled by the prevailing government" which means they are going to take potshots at you? Leave! And Allah hafiz.
>>It's refreshing to see people who think for themselves rather than repeating the politically skewed talking heads on CNN or Fox.
Thank you. I must say, there isn't a news program on any channel that I don't yell at at least several times a day. And that is one of the reasons I started the blog and registered with my county Registrar of Voters as "Decline to state". Since I can't be classed as a Democrat or Republican, Green or AI or whatever, I don't want anyone making assumptions about me based on what shows I watch or a party name on a piece of paper.
I appreciate your actually wading through all this and for your own well-written and thoughtful responses. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts on my thoughts. It's been fun and thought provoking to read them.
I am also glad to know that you're doing research on your son's behalf (and your own!) about reptiles. They are neat animals, but not for everyone. Ball pythons are particularly nice snakes (especially when captive bred and you get them comfortable with handling and let them have some supervised exploration time), and one of my favorites.
Enjoy the day!
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