Irritating tragedy with a silver lining

'Twas a dark day for this lowly private. Bad communications left me a week overdate for the latest Battle of Wellington. Hence, my arriving to find the Radical Women not there, and only the security officer to tell me that it was last week. Thankfully, it wasn't ALL totally bad. From the officer I learnt two things:

1. There were about 15 pro-woman's autonomy protesters there.
2. Very few fundies on the other side turned up.

Whoa...15 of us?!!1!? Where did they come from? (If you didn't read my last blog entry on the BOW, there were only 6 of us last time) To triple in numbers (roughly) would've been fantastic-a major moral boost for the fertility control clinic workers to know that so many people want to protect woman's rights and autonomy.

However, I am rather concerned by the lack of fundies who showed up. Fundies, for all their mindless ignorance and bigotry, are still very dedicated their causes. If they didn't show up today, then I have the suspicion that they've ambushed a similar clinic somewhere else, causing even more emotional anguish to women going through what would be the hardest decision of their lives.

Ah, well. 15 of us-that's just frickin' fantastic, even if I couldn't be there for it.

Micc Lazyboy Moments #1:

I've been very busy lately (as you may have noticed by the lack of posts), namely preparing to launch an attack across no man's land. */**

The Australian has some great articles on the US '08 election, featuring an candidate comparison.

Redirected by Captain Tobias, two very interesting articles about rumours and how our brains function when exposed to them.

Elsewhere, Lt. Keri pwns the ironically titled 'Tell the Truth Coalition' who maliciously lie about the current bill that is being debated in State Parliament right now. Either that, or they just think that the godless liberals are satanic monsters who want nothing more then to murder teh babies, so they assume that it's their worst strawmanning fears combined.

And the Green have an "all new, singing, dancing and blogging" website, replacing the original Greens Blog.

* Cr*p metaphor for doing an assignment.
**I AM a pacifist soldier, after all.

America: 19th century country in a 21st century world.

Recently, Obama and McCain have been interviewed by Rick Warren. He asked them hard hitting stuff like "when does life begin?" Because, as we all know, if a woman is in control of her sexual organs, Baby Jesus will cry. As usual, McCain said that life begins at fertilisation ("cells are people, too!!") whilst Obama did his best to worm around the issue, desperately trying to grab as many votes from the Left and Right moderates as possible. But what scare me sh*tless is that this has to happen. That in America, the biggest issues for Average Joe Citizen isn't the Iraq War, or eroding civil liberties, or that George "Super-Christian" Bush has taken a giant dump over the Geneva Conventions when it comes to torture. Instead, the issues that matter to Mr. A. J. Citizen is whether Obama is a closet Muslim*, or how much of a Bible-thumper each candidate is, or who can repeat "family values" with an American flag waving in the background in TV ads as many times as possible during the Super Bowel. But also because, hidden in Article 2 Section 1, is the unspoken law that one absolutely has to be a Christian to gain any political ground.

In other words, the actual issues that the candidates stand for is overwhelmed and crushed underfoot by who can craft the best image for themselves. The Age makes this point clear:

Almost 80% of Americans believe their country is on the wrong track, mired in an unpopular war and burdened with a failing economy. Yet the conventional wisdom of the presidential campaign now is that it will be a referendum on Barack Obama, not a judgement on the past eight years of Republican administration.

Score this round to the Republicans, for setting the agenda.

Polls consistently show a much tighter personal contest between Senator Obama and Senator McCain than they do between the Democratic and Republican parties.

"It's the right question to ask: why doesn't Obama have a much larger lead?" University of Maryland politics professor James Gimpel said yesterday. "I think the race thing is there. It has to be."

(my emphasis)

I don't know now much of a factor race plays in the 08 election. What I think matters is the total stranglehold the Republican Party has over America. A. J. Citizen may resent the Iraq War and the failing economy, Gitmo and legalised torture, but will be lured to the Republicans by a shameless smear campaign against Obama, hitting him below the belt with everything; unpatriotism, celebrity status-you name it, they're doing it. In response, Obama has no choice but to play the "Christ Christ Christ, ra ra ra!!" card to lure the centre right "values voter" Christians. And he has to keep doing it to suck a little more oxygen from McCain's smears.

And, if that doesn't work, then he will simply lower his standards.

And America continues to remain hooked to it.

As Brian of Bay of Fundie said,

"It is nothing less than an “intellectual emergency”, in the words of Sam Harris, that in the 21st century, after having set foot on the moon, discovered and mapped the human genome, and being close to probing the instant of the universe’s birth at the LHC in Europe, we still insist on screening our candidates for what is perhaps the most important job in the word through the absurd and preposterous filter of religion. Not only must our president believe in a capricious and insecure monster in the sky in order to make sound decisions, it must be the Christian version of that abomination he or she must bow in subservience to. How much more fucked up can THAT get?"

Truer words never spoken.

*IT WOULDN'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH OBAMA BEING BLACK, NOW WOULD IT? Of course not. America, land of opportunity, land of the free, is beyond all that.

When the ends justify the means

Casually flipping through Captain Tobias' archives, I discovered this little gem, featuring Andrew "Boy Wonder" Bolt. I think he's revealing a little too much of his authoritarian beliefs, here.

The real scandal isn’t that the US has locked up suspects at Guantanamo Bay, but that it’s let so many of them go free - free to resume their terrorism.

...

How many people have now been murdered by fanatics set free from Guantanamo Bay, at the urging of so many civil libertarians and Leftist activists?

How many deaths do those civil libertarians now have on their conscience?

Andrew seems to think that if we can save lives my locking up suspected terrorists, then we have a moral duty to do so. My question to Andrew; how far should we go? If we locked up every suspected murderer, rapist and child molester in Australia for life,chances are, we'd drastically reduce the number of murders, rapes and child molestations in the country. Only problem is, we'd be inevitably locking up innocent people in the process. Why is it justified when the suspects are suspected terrorists?

Oh, and one last point-nice try at trying to through some political mud at your fictional Leftists. Only trouble is, not every Lefty is a civil libertarian, and not every civil libertarian is a Lefty.

McCain displays his true Republican colours

Most people (myself included) would prefer to genuinely like McCain as a person. He fought in the Vietman War, was tortured, and refused to be released unless his fellow soldiers were freed. I won't deny it, that's heroism.

But then he starts pulling crap like this.

Barack Obama enjoys a jog at Hawaii's Kailua Beach, keeping focused on his workout even as his fans try to snap photos. Meanwhile John McCain is campaigning in Pennsylvania, has twice spoken with the President of Georgia, and is working to prevent a close American ally from collapsing under the weight of a Russian invasion.

That's the great thing about being a Republican; no guilt, no shame. You can use a war in which over 1,600 civilians have died as a cheap shot at your opponent, and no-one will think any less of you, because you've got your 'war-hero' persona and (of course) the "pro-life", "traditional family values" and "tough of crime/terror" sound-bites to keep your flock of sheep voting base asleep loyal.

Wonder Columnist discovers irrefutable link between obsenities and hate. Leftists now run for cover, their pure evillness exposed.

Bolta once again displays his brilliance at intellectualism and in-depth philosophy.

It’s true that some of the Left are genuinely nice people motivated by a sense of justice and compassion, however mistakenly applied. But it’s also true that the Left is the natural home of the barbarian.

What was the research that Andy used to make such a philosophical claim? That the Left uses more swear words. I've always thought that a 'barbarian' was someone who didn't give a rat's about the poor, or was an outspoken bigot, or was obsessed with retaining power at all expense of human rights. Bolt sure showed me.

Bolt: 1. Strawman Left: Pwned.

The religious right and lying.

In response to this, Terry Wright wrote: "Great to see God's children lying out their arse." Which sent me thinking: what makes the fundies lie? It's one of the 10 Commandments-you'd think theocrats who want the 10C in front of every public building would make sure to obey them.

And on a related note: what is it with fundies and blatant hypocrisy? Jesus was clear he didn't approve of that:

1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

If that isn't a total condemnation of all hypocrisy, then nothing is.

Certainly, the greatest example of a fundie hypocrite is Randall Terry. The story is this: Terry is a real 'pro-family' kinda guy. Wife, 3 kids etc. Very outspoken of his conservative family values, going as far as to write in The Judgement of God that "Families...are destroyed as a father vents his mid life crisis by abandoning his wife for a 'younger, prettier model." So what does he do? Divorces his wife and marries his secretary, almost 20 years younger then him*. You couldn't imagine hypocrisy that brilliant.

So, after several minutes of thought and googling, I've come up with two thought processes that fundies use to justify lying and hypocrisy. They are: the Messiah Complex and the Persecution Complex.

Common to just about every fundie, the Persecution Complex is the belief that you are being persecuted for who you are (in most fundies' cases, it's because of their Christian faith). Pat Robertson pretty much summed it up with this comedy gold:

Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It is the same thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians. Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history.

Couldn't've put it better myself. Despite every President being a Christian, every Congressman (except for the Hindu and the Muslim) being Christian and about 4/5ths of the entire population being Christian...Pat, his cronies and fundies in general are under the belief that they are being persecuted by the media and the gays.

The Messiah Complex is a person's delusion that they are a 'saviour' for a community of people, and have a special destiny to save said people. Although fundies usually don't have this trait to a tremendous degree, it would in part create the arrogance and "I'm, right, you're wrong, end of story" thought process that is seen in fundies.

So what happens when these two Complexes come together in unHoly Matrimony? It's simple: the belief that you are totally right in every possible way, because you believe in the Almighty God. Because you believe in this God, you are being persecuted. It doesn't take a great leap in logic to then think "these people (who are pure, absolute evil, BTW) are denying the absolute inherency of the Bible. They are denying the Truth of Jesus and God, etc." From there, fundies believe that in order to create their perfect country (free of feminism, gays, atheism and science) God will permit them to lie and be general hypocrites, because the ends (fundie utopia) will justify the means. Certainly, Terry has taken this thought process to its logical conclusion:

"Let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good.... If a Christian voted for Clinton, he sinned against God. It's that simple.... Our goal is a Christian Nation... we have a biblical duty, we are called by God to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want Pluralism. We want theocracy. Theocracy means God rules. I've got a hot flash. God rules."

Clearly when Jesus said to love your neighbour, even love you enemies, that was clearly a secret coding for mindless hatred instead.

Ok, that's my idea anyway: that a combination of extreme arrogance in their monopoly over the truth, along with their belief that they are being persecuted, has led Christian American fundies to believe that lying and hypocrisy is fine if it suits their theocratic agenda. Any other ideas?


*For the record, for the most part I'm opposed to a person's private life being used as a political football. The whole "OMG KEVIN RUDD WENT TO A STRIP CLUB HE HATES FAMILIES WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!1!!1!!!!!" was very annoying. However, if somebody's personal life and values are contradicted by their public life and values (such as with Terry), then there's a genuine point to be made. If you can't uphold yourself to certain morals, then don't espouse those morals to the public.