INTERNATIONAL ROCK CITY

SHITTY WEATHER

Low 50's and rain... forever. It's been like this for almost four months and i'm fucking sick of it.

SUPPORT LGBT IN IRAN

Their plight will not be ignored for political expediency. At least not by Rock City..

STOP MAKING SENSE

I've been reading this history of the new "Great Awakening" in America - translated in rational thinking person's terms as the "New Fundementalist Christian Power Grab" in America - by Damon Linker, in the New Republic. Really, I'm skimming it throughout the day. Here's an interesting slice:

Once the new breed of religious intellectuals had succeeded in convincing the American people that it is legitimate to make "religious, specifically biblical, truth claims" in public, they could then take their national tutorial to the next level--by seeking to transform the way Americans think of their country and its role in world history. In place of the notion of a "contract" among equal citizens, which secular intellectuals and academic political theorists had done their best to spread among the American people, Neuhaus proposed that the American experiment in self-government be reconceived in terms of a communal "covenant" under God. Unlike the signatories to a contract, who view the world through the lens of individual self-interest, the members of a covenantal community think and act in light of a time in which "judgment is rendered, forgiveness bestowed, renewal begun, and the experiment either vindicated or repudiated." For this reason, talk of a covenant raises questions about the eschaton--the "end times" in which individuals and peoples will be judged by the Lord. Neuhaus wished his readers to believe that God is watching and judging our every action as individuals and as a nation--and that we ought to order our public life in light of his divine oversight.

* * * *

This explains the Constitution Restoration Act of 2004 which seeks to enshrine into the Constitution the authority of "God's Law" over any other law, translated into rational thinking person's terms as fundementalist Christian interpretation of God's law over any other law. In addition, it explains Pat Robertson's (a man who offers spiritual guidance to our President) view that Hurricane Katrina was punishment by God for America's sins. Of course, what it doesn't explain is the Jupiter storm, which has been punishing our solar system's largest planet for over 400 years. Or perhaps I didn't realize that consciousless gasses were capable of sin.

The article continues:

Responding to the liberal concern that such speculation about God's plans for the nation would inspire religious extremism and heighten sectarian conflict, Neuhaus claimed that it would have a much more salutary effect, curing America's spiritual malaise by generating "a unifying source of meaning" for the entire American population. By "renewing our religious understanding of the American experience," the revival of "eschatological urgency" would lead the country to unite with confidence and in common purpose like never before--or at least for the first time since a "relentless secularism in the public realm" began to "eviscerate" American society.

* * * *

American society, over the past 230 years, has apparently been "eviscerated" by secularism. I always find it laughable when Christian conservatives make such claims. What exactly do they mean by this, anyway? That we should return to slavery? That we should strip women and blacks of their right to vote? That we should eliminate labor laws, safety standards, and corporate monopoly restrictions? Apparently the founding fathers were wrong to establish a separation of church and state - so then, if so-called "conservatives" believe this... how are they conservative? Wouldn't they be Christianist progressives? Or, translated into rational thinking person's terms...fucking scary fascists?

UPDATE: Sully covers this today, as well, though I want to point out I posted first, so you know I didn't just lift this all from him. But please check it out, he tackles the filthy homophobia spewing out of this Christianist movement.

BYE BYE BIRDIE

Uber-dork Kevin, or "Chicken Little" as he's so eloquently referred, was bumped off American Idol last night. This is after he gushed about how much he's enjoying being a sex symbol, which Paula Abdul enjoys reminding him of after he finishes his peformances.

Um, gross. The kid doesn't look as if he's even grown pubic hair for christsake. Paula, and the rest of y'all, are pedophiles.

AL-QAIDA PUTS ETA OUT OF BUSINESS

Spain's Basque separatist group has declared a permanent cease-fire. Thanks in part to the Madrid bombings of March 11, 2004.

I think this is great news, I absolutely love Spain. With Spain out of Iraq, I doubt it will be as much of a target for Islamists, but you never know.

THEY ROCK

...on craigslist today.

SECULAR IN SAN FRANCISCO

The new Catholic archbishop of San Francisco is much more sympathetic to homosexuality than his Pope. Nonetheless, he is now asking the archdiocesse social services to stop placing children without families in homosexual households, as it conflicts with Church teaching on homosexuality.

Pretty Christ-like, huh?

This is exactly why social services need to be government funded, and remain secular, so they are less likely to be subjected to discrimination. But i guess that's just pork.

WHY NOT THE U.N.? AND WHY, FOR GODSAKE, IS RUMSFELD STILL AROUND?

Doesn't he just make you want to puke?

Anyway...

Why doesn't anyone ask the President the reasons he's not actively trying to recruit international support to quell a civil-war in Iraq? Civil war in Iraq is not in anyone's interest - yet Bush refuses to alleviate the burden on American troops by inviting the UN back into the country or working harder for the participation of a pan-Arab peace-keeping force. Why? Why not put fucking UN uniforms on the US troops if it's the US presence that is fueling the insurgency?

Could it be that the Bush administration's refusal to internationalize the nation-building in Iraq is due to its refusal to accept Iraq may not be the client state it hoped for? Or could it simply be that Donald Rumsfeld's ego is more important than the lives of the Iraqi's and the American soldiers?

Surely the US can get more creative... but only if Bush allows Rumsfeld to resign.

SISTANI: KILL GAYS - FOLLOW-UP

Sullivan vs. Cole on this one. Juan's response to Sullivan lifts him out of a hole quite nicely.

However, Juan Cole argues that Sistani "is not Islam." Millions of Iraqis, I think, would beg to differ.

BECAUSE HE WAS OPPRESSED?

...what will be the leftist defense of Al-Sistani's declaration that gays should be murdered horribly? We already know the statement will be ignored by the US administration.

Slice:

Written in Arabic, the fatwa comes from a press conference with the powerful religious cleric, where he was asked about the judgment on sodomy and lesbianism. “Forbidden,” Sistani answered, according to OutRage, “Punished, in fact, killed. The people involved should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing.”

* * * *
..or maybe it was a mistranslation?

I may have been against the invasion of Iraq, but I sure as hell am no ally of this breed of Islam - which is the Arab mainstream breed.