Bigotry today. Bigotry tomorrow. Bigotry forever!

"There's nothing more frightening than ignorance in action." -Tom Smothers

Today’s Post-Star ran a seemingly innocuous piece on the religious practices of a Muslim gentleman in Queensbury.

But since the Park51 (the misnamed ‘Mosque at Ground Zero’) project has brought hatemongers out of the closet, there’s no such thing anymore as an ‘innocuous piece’ related to people of the Islamic faith... no matter how far away from lower Manhattan.

The comments on the article are pretty disgusting... especially considering how mild the article’s topic really was. Can you imagine the furor if defamation like this were directed at Jews or Christians?

I was raised as a Catholic. I was also raised as an American in a country founded by those fleeing religious bigotry. I can’t remember anything in my religious or civic upbringing that could possibly justify the sort of filth being spewed.

I’m not sure which fraud disgusts me more: that these bigots call themselves lovers of freedom, that they call themselves Christians or that they call themselves Americans.

Muslims around the world should know that the majority of Americans reject this barbaric hatred.

Terrorism works by provoking self-destruction

There's been a lot of controversy about the mosque and community center to be built several blocks away from the Ground Zero site in Manhattan. Apparently, some people truly believed the line that 'they' hate us for our freedom so they're trying to remedy this problem by eradicating the freedom part.

Do opponents of the project object to its services for the elderly? Its day care program? The 9/11 memorial that it will house?

The religious bigotry underpinning the controversy has been whipped by venal, self-serving politicians, who are behind most forms of bigotry. The issue was first seized upon by Rick Lazio and Carl Paladino. These Republican candidates for governor are light years behind in the polls to Democratic front-runner Andrew Cuomo and they fabricated this issue in a pathetic attempt to get people to pay attention to them.

The hypocrisy was amplified when both of these 'men' proposed using eminent domain to stop the project. So these conservatives, who brag about supporting 'limiting government,' proposed using the government bludgeon to suppress both freedom of religion and private property rights.

Of course, the usual cacaphony of hatemongers like Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck didn't miss their chance to stoke the fires of ignorance.

Some claim that their opposition is not to any mosque/community center but only to the location of this particular one. Those this page shows some of the other things that are even closer to sacred site.

There are no doubt some who oppose the project solely because its location. Perhaps in an ideal world, it would not have been built so close to the former Twin Towers' site. However, as the project's spokesman pointed out, real estate in lower Manhattan is neither abundant nor cheap.

But the reality is that much of the opposition is really based on religious bigotry. This article in The New York Times points out that opposition has arisen mosque building projects in places like Tennessee, Wisconsin and California.

As a representative of a California mosque/community center project pointed out, local Muslim families had contributed to the local food bank, sent truckloads of supplies to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and participated in music nights and Thanksgiving events with the local interfaith council. "We do all these activities and nobody notices,” he said. “Now that we have to build our center, everybody jumps to make it an issue.”
For some, 'too close to Ground Zero' for an Islamic site really means 'anywhere in America.'

If this is what Sarah Palin's sickening 'real America' is all about, then I'll stay here in the 'fake America' that was founded as a haven for religious tolerance and believes in freedom and other civilized values.

A good part of our foreign policy is based encouraging moderate Muslims to stand up for themselves against the violent, extremist strand of their faith and to support them when they do. So what's our strategy at home? To tar them all with the same brush. To act like all Muslims were responsible for 9/11 and that they should all face the collective punishment of being allowed nowhere even remotely near the site.

Yogi Berra famously said the secret of baseball management was to keep the guys who hated you away from the guys who were undecided.

It's a good national security strategy too, one that conservatives would be wise to follow.

This is America. We speak Christian!

From a letter in today's Post-Star:

"If Obama had his way, we'd all be speaking Muslim."

Since this guy is no doubt a supporter of hers, I call on Sarah Palin to 'refudiate' this sentiment.

As Tom Smothers said during the Bush regime, "There's nothing more dangerous than watching ignorance in action."

News and observations

News item: Study: Insurance companies hold billions in fast food stock (CNN)

Observation: This is a bit like mining companies taking out life insurance on their employees

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News item: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's hard right turn (Maclean's)

Observation: It's too bad that America's noxious mix of religion and politics (which inevitably corrupts both) has drifted northward.

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Comment [verbatim]: "Since we seem to be the worlds policeman. The US should be paid for it. If we are going to be in the Pursian Gulf , Pursia needs to pay the US (I think they can afford it." (seen on an NCPR blog entry)

Observation: "There's nothing scarier than ignorance in action." -Tom Smothers

Further observation: "The argument against democracy is to spend 5 minutes with the average voter." -My old high school friend Dan

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Article: The Return of Christian Terrorism:Threats of right-wing violence have doubled in the past year. What is behind the latest upsurge in the movement to create a Christian theocratic state? (Alternet)

Observation: Probably the arrival of a president who, though religious, doesn't shove his religion down people's throats at every waking instant. This is seen by Christian theocrats as "secularism."

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Article: How the FCC Can Protect the Internet from Pro-Corporate Judges and Greedy Telecoms (Alternet)

Observation: If you don't want your internet provider to routinely block your favorite website (whether TheDailyShow.com, GlennBeck.com or anything in between), you should support net neutrality.

Tales of the Apocalypse

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

According to Morality in Media [sic], one of the battalions in the Theocracy Brigade, the fact that Iowa Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage occurred on the same day as the deadly shooting spree in Binghamton was no coincidence.

According to another always reasonable conservative Ann Coulter, any problem in society, including rape and murder, can actually be traced back to single moms.

Thus... getting married causes mass murder. Not getting married causes mass murder. Getting divorced causes even more mass murder.

I think I'll remain a bachelor!

Though it did give me an idea. I know many conservatives deny the reality of climate change and its human component. But I think many of them could be persuaded if told that climate change was actually caused by gay marriage!

We already know that gays caused Hurricane Katrina. So blaming them for broader climate change isn't much of a leap.

Are you dumber than an 11 year old?

I'm sorry to rant but... is there anything more flat out stupid than observations like "With really cold weather we're having tonight, I have a hard time believing in global warming."

The scary part is that people with this sort of comprehensive ignorance of the most basic tenets of science, stuff I learned way back in 6th grade... these are the people who've been running the country and overruling informed scientific policy for the last eight years.

It was 63 here last Wednesday afternoon. I guess that proves global warming!!!

Poetic justice

It's no secret that I did not vote for Barack Obama nor that I have issues with both him and the Democratic Party. Nevertheless, especially in the week a Republican campaign that did everything it could to appeal to broader cult of ignorance, I take some satisfaction in knowing that all the racist idiots in this country will spend the next four years having to choke on the words 'President Obama.'

Ignorance is only skin deep

"The curse of the human race is not that we are so different from one another, but that we are so alike." –Salman Rushdie

It is believed that humans and chimpanzees share at least 98 percent of the same DNA. Apparently it's that other 2 percent that makes chimps the more evolved animal.

The BBC reports that albinos in Tanzania are being murdered on behalf of witch doctors based on the belief that potions made from an albino's legs, hair, hands, and blood can make a person rich.

And as if to illustrate that 'enlightened' Europe isn't immune from such madness, you have the Italians. The country of Michelangelo is accused of ethnic cleansing against Roma (gypsies). The right-wing government is trying to implement a Nazi-esque fingerprinting program solely targeting that ethnic group. Many seem unperturbed by the purges, sunbathing next to Roma corpses.

Seriously... what the f--- is wrong with people?


Update: There's ignorance and then there's sheer self-absorbed callousness.