Tag Archives: nationalism

Hateful Stupidity Infecting the Left Too

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I’ve sometimes been accused of letting the left-wing off the hook in my criticism. Well, today you are in for a treat. I’ve found a pocket of hate and ignorance among some people who label themselves left-wing. I had a little back and forth on Facebook today, and was appalled to see this. Are you kidding me? I recognize the standard moves, but I’m not used to seeing them on the left. Such paranoia! Such hatred! Bah! Boooo!

Elijah ‎[Goddamn this bullshit people. Do some people actually think that everything is a Zionist plot to enslave humanity?]
11:54am
2 people like this.

Mary For Peace: Brother Elijah, I am sad to report that most of the world events MAY actually be Zionist plots. Remember we are in a battle of light versus darkness. There is no rest, we must always be viligant. Peace for all, not just for some is our goal. Be thankful there are people who watch these events, and can discern wickedness from good. We must always be on watch and let the people know. ♥
11:56am

Elijah: To say that is to let off the hook other elements that are active in causing suffering. Other human beings are capable of foul shit too,
11:57am

Kathy: You’re right, evil walks in many garbs. But the NeoCon world vision encompasses many human movements, including Zionism.
11:59am

Mary For Peace: You are right brother. However, let us not ignore the “elephant in the living room” in other words, we all know who causes most of the pain & suffering in the world. It is wise to keep a watch on the Zionists, since they always seem to have a hand in the events of the world.
12:00pm

Heidi: The battle of light versus darkness runs down the center of every soul. What hubris to think that you are watchers – this is just hate. Jesus was a Jew, and all his followers were Jews. You are a sick person to call yourself “Mary for Peace.”
12:00pm

Mary For Peace: OK Heidi, you made your point, no doubt you are a follower of the Hatriot movement or Palin supporter. There is a big difference between a Jew and a Zionist. Please get off the internet and go read a book for a change. Educate yourself before calling names.
12:05pm

Elijah: ‎@Mary, Mrs Heidi is neither. Keep this civil.
12:06pm

Mary For Peace: Ok Elijah…….I understand where you BOTH are coming from. Since she started the name calling and you do nothing about it…..we are at a stand still aren’t we? You must prove yourself here or we will simply take both your words and hers to show what you guys really believe in……..WE ARE WAITING……???
12:08pm

Heidi: I’m left-wing, progressive, and also a religion scholar. Not a Palin supporter. Israel is as divided as the US, and there are all kinds of Zionists. How do you separate what you’ve said from hate speech?
12:08pm

Elijah: @Mary, I have no idea what you are talking about. This is not a war between factions. This is a Facebook status. We are adults and are capable of having a rational discussion on the topic at hand. I don’t really have to prove anything. Just look at my posts.
12:11pm

Mary For Peace: Heidi, both you and Elijah are showing your true colors today here. I am not in the mood to entertain Zionist supporters disguised as peaceful people. You both are trying to pick fights with peacemakers instead of focusing on the true problems. Shame on you both. To pick fights within the ranks is showing that you both support the other side, we know this is a favorite tool of Zionists to try to divide people. Good bye to both of you, I do not waste my time & effort on Zionist trolls here on Facebook.
12:12pm

Heidi: Ummmm…. so this is someone who thinks in a very binary way, I guess. Zionist troll? Wow – that’s a new one for me! lol
12:13pm

Kathy: Seems to me a matter of semantics here. Actually, most progressive souls are divorcing themselves from the Zionist label, even if they support the Israeli people. I think it’s more important for all of us to recognize the neocon world order supercedes Zionism and all other isms. And Heidi did call Mary “sick” first even though Mary’s statement was completely legitimate. But, sorry, Mary, you’re overreacting. Elijah is far from a Zionist troll. By the way, I won’t be back.
12:13pm

Elijah: Zionist supporter? Really? I do not support the Israeli regime in any way. But I do recognize there are other forces out there that seek to control and imprison the minds of people. Everything isn’t a Zionist plot to destroy the world.
12:14pm

Heidi: I do think that it is pathological to call yourself Mary for Peace while expressing hatred for a whole group of Jews, and invoking pseudochristian biblical interpretations…
12:15pm

Mary For Peace: Kathy, you are right, Heidi owes me an apology for calling names. However, what does she and Elijah expect when they pick the fights? Do you guys think people will roll over and allow you to walk upon them? NOT THIS PERSON. SORRY. Elijah is DELETED for not speaking out, if he put someone into check for their name calling…..HOW CAN HE STAND UP FOR BIGGER CAUSES?
12:16pm

Heidi: I don’t support the current right-wing policies of Israel, but I would make a distinction between opposing policies and hating people. Evidently that’s not seen as “peaceful”? Very odd.
12:16pm

Mary For Peace: I love the Jewish people……but I DO NOT LOVE ZIONIST POLICIES. Like I said before…..please educate yourself. Even many Jews in Israel do not support their Zionist regime!
12:17pm

Heidi: Perhaps you should leave it to others to discern evil from good. Just sayin’.
12:17pm

Crystal: Mary may I suggest stepping down from your pedestal? Reading through the comments the hate & name-calling started and ended with you. I think there are much better ways to get ones point across.
12:18pm

Elijah: Pick fights? I’m just not a fan of this extreme hatred of Jewish people. I’m a student of history and knows what happened to the Jewish people for the actions of their elite. I see the same sort of hatred rising up again.
12:18pm

Heidi: Perhaps you might also look up the history of the word Zionist before telling others to educate themselves?
12:18pm

Elijah: So Mary I’m on the other side? Really? If that is the case so be it. I think for myself and am not a slave of group thought.
12:19pm

Elijah: So much for that. Feelings go so hurt that I’m deleted and blocked. Oh fucking well. Everything ain’t a Zionist plot and some people are weak as shit.
12:23pm

Heidi: Sorry, Elijah. If it’s important to you, maybe you can patch it up. Didn’t mean to mess anything up. The performative irony of the accusations reminded me of so many other haters that masquerade as compassionate people that I took it as a teachable moment. Guess not.
12:25pm

Heather: well said my friend…well said!
12:27pm

Elijah:‎ @Heidi, I’m not going to budge honestly. Blind hatred of Jewish people often results in mass slaughter. The Middle Ages, The Russian Revolution, the Holocaust. I do hate the Zionist elite with a freaking passion. But often times the blind hate gets taken on on the people who are just like us. If Mary can’t see that, then she doesn’t need to be Facebook friends with me.
12:29pm

Heidi:Even Wikipedia has a decent entry on the history of Zionism. I have no real problem with Israel as homeland, but there needs to be peace in the region – and fairness. I do get nervous with any kind of supernationalism (including in the USA). However, the religious overtones made her references much more a matter of anti-Semitism than of opposition to policy. What “plots”? Sheesh.
12:29pm

Elijah:It is bad in some respects in the anti Zionist movement. You have people who will latch on and believe in crap like the Elders of the Protocols of Zion. It is sad.
12:31pm

Heidi: Besides, I prefer to keep the “watchers” in the angelic function. It’s not our job.
12:31pm
Heidi: Remember humility?
12:32pm
Heidi: Judge not?
12:33pm
Heidi: Sigh.
12:33pm

Heidi: I just don’t understand how anyone can believe that hate leads to peace. It never has, and it never will.
12:33pm

Elijah: But many times people don’t see their actions as hate.
12:34pm

Heidi: That’s why it needs to be called out.
12:35pm
Heidi: Her very first comment made it very clear.
12:36pm

Elijah: Agreed. To blame everything on Zionists is to let the other criminals off the hook.
12:41pm

Robyn: I think the Pentacostals are run by a bunch of angry Christian Giraffes out to destroy Trader Joe’s. So forget your Zionists…this is the real threat.
12:57pm

Robyn: Hey at least my conspiracy isnt’ full of irrational hate
12:58pm

Erica: You’re either with me, or you’re a Zionist? :)
1:17pm

Cheryl: “I am sad to report that most of the world events MAY actually be Zionist plots.” I don’t see this as antisemitism at all. Many Christians are Zionists. I actually agree with her statement here. It is not saying everything is a result of Zionism but Zionism is a major cause of destruction in the world today and THAT my friend is the elephant in the room!
I don’t know Mary and I don’t even know if we are FB friends right at the moment. To be honest I was more offended by some of Heidi’s comments than Mary’s. Maybe Mary got more upset then you feel she should have. I did see it as Heidi was directly attacking Mary from the start when Mary was speaking in general and not about any particular person here at 1st. Heidi you started it.
How about this below Heidi the “religion scholar” I guess you were taught from that faulty Scofield Reference bible or not? The one that has deceived Christians for decades now?

http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/jesusjew.htm

“Jesus was a ‘Judean’, not a Jew.”
“During His lifetime, no persons were described as “Jews” anywhere. That fact is supported by theology, history and science. When Jesus was in Judea, it was not the “homeland” of the ancestors of those who today style themselves “Jews”. Their ancestors never set a foot in Judea. They existed at that time in Asia, their “homeland”, and were known as Khazars. In none of the manuscripts of the original Old or New Testament was Jesus described or referred to as a “Jew”. The term originated in the late eighteenth century as an abbreviation of the term Judean and refers to a resident of Judea without regard to race or religion, just as the term “Texan” signifies a person living in Texas.”"
In spite of the powerful propaganda effort of the so-called “Jews”, they have been unable to prove in recorded history that there is one record, prior to that period, of a race religion or nationality, referred to as “Jew”. The religious sect in Judea, in the time of Jesus, to which self-styled “Jews” today refer to as “Jews”, were known as “Pharisees”. “Judaism” today and “Pharisaism” in the time of Jesus are the same.”
“Jesus abhorred and denounced “Pharisaism”; hence the words, “Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites, Ye Serpents, Ye Generation of Vipers”.
3:21pm

Cheryl Brownlee:
Then head over to:

http://www.whtt.org/newwhtt/

“Were it not for mega millions of misled Christian Zionists in America who support Israel’s warmaking agenda in the Middle East there would be no occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and Philistin…e, and children could sleep soundly in Lebanon, Iran and Gaza confident that no american made bombs would fall on their beds tonight.”
“Zionism denies most basic teaching of Jesus and the Prophets. The church-centered pro-Zionist group that influence the largest voting bloc in the U.S.A, practice the reverse of what their leaders say they believe. Southern Baptists and most non-denominational mega-churches are led by TV celebrities, profess that the Bible is the literal, inerrant word of God, preserved by His hand. They teach not from the ancient words, but from man added footnotes and commentaries inserted into several popular study bibles, which often avoid or deny Jesus words.”
Now Heidi call ME antisemitic! I despise ALL Zionists and their supporters many whom call themselves Christians. Which category are you in as far as religion goes? I was raised in a Christian home I have some Zionists in my own family that know I am against their un-Christlike support of Israel and its wars against the Muslims.
You wanna talk about discrimination? Let us talk about the Muslims or how about the genocide of some of my ancestors the Native Americans?!!! There are many genocides to speak of besides the “Jews” and their “6 million”. Yet why is everything focused on them? Many more Christians and Native Americans have been genocided than that. They sure don’t print THAT in our government funded text books in schools do they now? Where are THEIR museums Heidi that make us forever feel responsible and sorry for them?
“Thus, according to Ward Churchill, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado, the reduction of the North American Indian population from an estimated 12 million in 1500 to barely 237,000 in 1900 represents a “vast genocide . . . , the most sustained on record.” Some say the number is even higher than this!
About that Scofield hoax played upon the Christian Zionists:
http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/hoax/scofield.htmSee More
3:52pm

Heidi: Um… actually, the Pharisees were one faction, the legalistic one. And I will reiterate that there are many kinds of Zionism in addition to the flavor of the year. I think the US is at least as much to blame, if not more so, for pre-emptive war. Your scholarship is faulty, but I’m not going to argue with “true believers” because I’ve found it to be a pointless exercise. If you wanted to, you could research the topic among people who are actually trained in the fields that you are cherry-picking. I don’t take seriously a website that is focused on paranoia and the “Illuminati” – all obsessions of the far-right as well. Yes, many Native Americans were killed as well. Lots of people all over the world have been killed. It’s not a contest for biggest victim. Seriously?
4:34pm

Heidi: Here’s how you know not to take someone seriously as an adult: “Remember we are in a battle of light versus darkness…We must always be on watch and let the people know.” Putting things in terms of demonization is childish and inaccurate, and slows down real progess.
4:36pm

Heidi: Oh – and there is general agreement about both the King James and the Scofield bible, as well as the “New World Translation” and others. Real scholars read in the original languages or from a concordance of reputable translations. No points.
4:40pm

Heidi: Perhaps you could do less despising and more constructive actions for the causes you support? Just a thought.
4:40pm

I’m against the imperialist goals of neo-cons, and I do believe that Israel has taken a turn to the hard-right in its policies. But I also know that the USA has become much more right-wing – in its policies of the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war, the ongoing wars, the disregard of the actual needs of the American people, the corruption toward the very top of the economic ladder, and a million other things.

It’s so very tiresome and predictable to fear-monger and scapegoat. Why not direct some valid criticism where it belongs?

Mix paranoia with religion, and ugliness ensues. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. I just didn’t know that there were apocalyptic pseudo-Christians on the left, too. The ones on the right make much more noise.

American Fascists: Language… and Reality

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What a beautiful present on a Saturday morning! It is rare to see someone write on this set of issues with such precision and clarity. Gigantic kudos to Jeff Fecke, and a huge thank you to Mark Crispin Miller for sharing this with me!

The F Word
By Jeff Fecke | October 27, 2010
Please go comment on the original post!

There are epithets that decent people shy away from using. One obvious example is the use of racist, ethnic, or gender-based slurs. If you’re a decent human being, you don’t use them, because one uses them to hurt, to malign, to defame.

But it is not just slurs on one’s person that we avoid. We also avoid slurs on one’s political philosophy. Describing someone as a Nazi, for example, is rightly seen as beyond the pale. It says a person is a believer in an ideology that led to the slaughter of six million innocent people, and ignited a global war that killed millions more. Unless a person actually is a follower of Hitler’s philosophy, describing them as a Nazi is not only inaccurate, it’s pejorative. And the same is true of other discredited, vile, or simply discarded epithets, like communist1, or Maoist, or totalitarian; unless a person actually is a communist, Maoist, or totalitarian, describing them as such is simply rude, and is designed to create far more heat than light.

But sometimes, the shoe fits. There are still Nazis, after all. There are still segregationists. Still anti-Semites. Still communists. Some of these people wear their positions proudly, like the perky neo-Nazi with the swastika tattoo on her head who frequents my local convenience store.2 Most, however, hold their positions without admitting to the label that defines them — as the label itself describes a belief system that has been rejected by everyone.

This is why people who proudly use racial epithets will refuse the epithet “racist.” They are racists, of course, but they will not wear the mantle, because racism is bad, and everyone agrees on that. Of course, they may believe that people of different races shouldn’t mix, and that people of a given race are inferior to people of another race, and that people of a different race moving into a country will destroy it. But don’t call them racist — they’ll pitch a fit.

And this is, of course, the other reason decent people shy away from applying the most loaded political labels to their opponents — because they don’t want to have to have the fight. Because no matter how much your opponent says Stalin had some good ideas, calling her a Stalinist will only lead to a fight about how she isn’t one.

And yet — sometimes you simply have to call a racist a racist. If a person is advancing all the tenets of racism, then that person is in fact a racist. And standing by and pretending that person isn’t racist is playing into their hands, by allowing them the fiction that their racism is not racism, but something benign.
And that lets radicalism in through the back door, and lets decent people advance radical views without admitting to being radicals. And slowly, that makes radical views acceptable.

There is a political philosophy that you are probably familiar with. Among its core tenets are:

  • Nationalism – The people of its country are special, and the founders of the nation as uniquely wise — and people of all other nations are inherently dangerous. People who do not fully assimilate are viewed as threats to be dealt with.
  • Social Darwinism - Those who are poor are poor because of their own flaws and failings, and if they can’t work, they don’t deserve to eat.
  • Propaganda - It uses its own media outlets (when out of power) or state-controlled media (when in power) to support its own viewpoint while ridiculing others.
  • Anti-Intellectualism -It ridicules the pointy-headed intellectuals with their large words and their big plans, in favor of the simple, salt-of-the-earth man on the street, and the wisdom of the Average Joe.
  • Heroism – National heroes are not just heroes, but uniquely heroic, uniquely wise. No other country’s heroes were as brilliant and crafty, and no other nation’s enemies more deserving of punishment.
  • Social Authoritarianism – When people fall away from morality, the power of the state can and should be used to push them back in line.
  • Militarism – The military is the best and most respectable part of the nation, and war should be supported unblinkingly whenever an enemy threatens.
  • Corporatism – The power of the government can be used to intervene economically, but almost always on the side of corporations — as it believes that companies create wealth
  • Anti-Communism – Communism — usually defined as “other political philosophies” — represents an existential threat to our way of life, and must be defeated at any and all costs.

The adherents of this philosophy believe that they are saving their nation from the weak, the Communists, the intellectuals. They see their country as at a crossroads, and believe that if the wrong turn is taken, it will cease to be a great nation, and will become like all the rest of those lousy states. Because they believe that they are the saviors of their nation, they are willing to do almost anything to gain power — lie, pull dirty tricks, and resort to violence against political opponents. Indeed, in every country where this philosophy has taken hold, it has used extrajudicial action by its members to intimidate its opponents.

If you have been paying attention, you know that there is a political movement in this country that mirrors these views. Its members claim that America is a unique country, a shining city on a hill. That the Founding Fathers were wise beyond any reckoning, and that any deviation from the course they set us on is tantamount to blasphemy. That immigration (and, sotto voce, racial and gender equality) is destroying the uniqueness of the American experiment, and that we keep moving away from the good ol’ days of the 1950s to a place that would make the founders blanch in horror.

These people have their own news network that tells them what they want to hear, that lies to them brazenly, that calls their opponents socialists and secret Muslims. They mistrust intellectuals, rage against the well-educated, claim that deep thinking is un-American. They believe that the government should use its power to keep people from getting abortions, and to discourage homosexuality. They believe that the unemployed are lazy, and that they should either work, or starve.

They are worshipful of the idea of the military and of citizen militias. They do speak out against corporate greed, half-heartedly, but oppose any action that might impose limitations of corporations — and are indeed happy to support corporate welfare whenever they get the opportunity, so long as they can call it something else.

They say they are doing all of this because of the threat from socialism, which is a word that in America has become conflated with communism.
And they are most definitely using extrajudicial violence and intimidation to get their way.

In America, in 2010, these people call themselves the Tea Party. They say they are trying to get our nation back to its founding principles, deliberately using iconography from the American Revolution to stake a claim that they represent the last, best hope of Real America.

They may see themselves that way, but that is not the right way to describe them. The philosophy they endorse is a well-known one, one described by one word.
Fascism.

You may object to my calling the Tea Party a fascist movement. I understand. I don’t like doing so myself. But they are far closer to fascism than the modern Democratic Party is to socialism. And Democrats being socialist is an article of faith among the far right of the Republican Party.

I don’t like calling my opponents fascist. But the shoe fits — at least among the farthest of the far right, the group that has taken over the modern Republican Party. The path that the Palins and Angles and Millers and their ilk would have us take is the same that Mussolini charted for Italy. They’ve prettied it up, of course. They’ve sanded off the edges. And they’ve added the extra dimension of religion to it — the idea that we are fighting a war against Islam, which is in league with socialism, and that Christianity must be bolstered.

But that was predicted. Sinclair Lewis once wrote, “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” Well, my friends, fascism has come to America, flag and cross and all. And if we do not say so — if we dare not name it, for fear of riling our opponents — we let them mainstream their views. And that inaction would be far worse than any word can be.

–
1Note: communist, not socialist. Communism, specifically the brand that was attempted in the Soviet Union and its client states, has been tried, and it failed spectacularly; it rivals Naziism for the most evil political philosophy of the 20th century. A version of socialism, contrawise, has been made to work rather well in places like Sweden and Denmark, without the terror wrought by Stalin and his ilk. One can argue whether socialism is a good or bad political system, but it is not an inherently evil one.
2Do you think I could possibly be making that up?

What does it mean to celebrate Independence Day?

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I’ve been getting all the regular emails that I expect this time of year. It makes me sad that a form of blind nationalism has seemingly replaced authentic American patriotism.

“Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side. … The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.” ~ George Orwell

We are surrounded by a significant amount of ignorance and confusion about what the founding values really are, about how and why religion benefits from the separation of church and state, about integrity versus fear/hate, about whether “real Americans” only include the immigrants from a couple of waves of history – or all of them, about whether it is American to interfere with someone’s pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, about whether or not inalienable human rights actually apply to all humans – or just to some of the more wealthy Americans. We actually sit around and argue about whether someone even has the right to be who they are! These are issues that arise over and over and over again. Want to be a real American? Want to be a real patriot? Then get a spine! Stand up for the things that have made us worthy of admiration. Live in integrity, be courageous in the face of truth, don’t be fearful or avoidant in acknowledging and bettering whatever is failing to live up to our values. American values.

Happy Independence Day Americans should always say “Independence Day” rather than euphemizing with “the 4th.” When I was young, everyone seemed to say “Independence Day” a lot more than they do now. Why is that? The meaning of Independence Day for me is that just as we achieved independence (moving from an imperial colony into a fledgling country that rejected state religion, taxation without representation, and an uncompromising class structure, and championed the virtues of equality and liberty and ethical justice) we each should remember to reinstill an informed sense of those standards in thinking and acting and to continuing to uphold those values in any way that we can.

The Constitution as a founding document was meant to give us the kind of government that is fair and that allows freedom and flexibility to adjust to new realities. It created the moving parts to evolve and to better ourselves and our ethical insights, with inalienable rights for every American – and every human. A government of, by and for the people built the middle class, made us a world power, and made us strong and admirable. Without those core values, we can’t compete at the same level in any sense.

Change is part of what the Constitution allows, describes… and makes possible! We don’t need to re-animate the limited views of the past, only to salvage and rearticulate our core strengths as Americans. This is what we are losing, and all the “protective” killing in the world cannot protect us from the loss of understanding from within.

That means that whether or not you’re a soldier, you’re not off the hook. It’s not enough to be grateful for sacrifices made to establish and maintain the core principles of the USA. As Americans, we have a higher standard than flag waving and jingoism. The flag, the Bible, the Constitution – when will the neocon chickenhawks and war profiteers and the pseudo-Christian right cease this manipulation of the masses with what can only be called idol worship? Literalists are always mistaking the symbol for a reality, and it’s a failure of education. Americans seem to have less of a sense of history than most other nations, and it hurts us in this battle.

“The very existence of the state demands that there be some privileged class vitally interested in maintaining that existence. And it is precisely the group interests of that class that are called patriotism.” ~ Mikhail Bakunin, Russian anarchist

The fringe right has been moved into the center, and this is very troubling for a number of reasons. Among the long list of problems is that the current rightwing is not conservative in any recognizable way, and it uses the worship of a static Constitution to reintroduce items that we have – for the most part -culturally surpassed. After well over 200 years, we’re regressing to some of the beliefs and prejudices that the Constitution itself was meant to transcend! Have we learned nothing?

Propaganda and political mind games seem to appeal to the worst part of so many Americans, but there are always those who will stand up and speak truth to power – no matter where the power is located. It helps nothing to squabble amongst the “small people” over cultural preferences when we are all being ripped off – and our very land and future stolen. Don’t let fear and hate and the hysterical lynchmob mentality take over our country, lest we become that which we should stand against.

We are in danger of losing the sense of who we are as a people – a people composed of many peoples, many tribes and ethnicities, many classes, many religions but who share the values of liberty and freedom and justice for all. If we lose that, we are America no longer.

Will you be a *real* American?

——————————————-

07-12-10
P.S. Don’t miss Jolly Roger’s wonderful explication of the difference between nationalism and patriotism.

Disgusting Nationalistic Display for US Open Championship

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I walked into the kitchen because I could hear John ranting. I took one look and choked on my coffee.

Who thought it was a good idea to open an international competition with Liza Minnelli belting “God Bless America” from a red carpet on the tennis court? I think fondly of Liza. She’s not the most centered woman on the planet, but whatever can have possessed her to participate in this?

I gagged when I saw men in uniform rolling out an obscenely huge American flag over the whole court while she roared – so totally vulgar and inappropriate. I’ll bet they weren’t entirely happy about it either.

So how was the choice made to open one of the few truly international events that American hosts with such a nationalistic ritual?

What next? Do we all goose-step into our seats? Everybody hails the flag?

This country is whacked. We deserve every word in any overseas editorials that might be written about this – or maybe they’ve just given up on us. How is it that when we see this kind of thing in North Korea everybody gets it, but not when we see it here?

The top players aren’t even American! (What, we can’t take not being the winners?)

Arrogant. Self-centered. Unwelcoming. Boorish. Rude. Disgusting. Stupid.

You can email the United States Tennis Association to register your opinion with them. You can email Liza too.

National Anthem PSA

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A new VirusHead tradition begins here. Now.

Every Saturday I will post another of Laurie Anderson’s public service announcements. She actually calls them personal service announcements.

Just a few little tidbits for you to ruminate upon. (Please make more, Laurie.)

The first PSA that I’ve chosen is called “National Anthem.”

YouTube Preview Image

The words are great though..just a lot of questions, written during a fire…. things like:

Hey, do you see anything over there?
I don’t know, there’s a lot of smoke.

Say, isn’t that a flag?
Hmmmm…Couldn’t say really. It’s pretty early in the morning.

Hey – do you smell something burning?

Update on JWs in the News

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Watchtower Cashing In on Real Estate

Nonprofits Not Shy About Cashing In on Real Estate Gems

In Brooklyn, the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Watchtower Bible & Tract Co. of New York sold a building at 89 Hicks St. to Brooklyn Law School. A few months ago it sold a 48-unit elevator apartment building for $14 million.

(Non-JW!) College Students Ban the Pledge

I still don’t salute the flag or do the pledge of loyalty to the piece of cloth. I stand in solidarity with the small group of undergraduate politicians at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa that voted to ban the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance at their student government meetings.

There was a predictable reaction to this rather insignificant decision: hysteria. One fellow student “became so distraught by the announcement of the ban that she immediately began reciting the pledge” – like starting in with “Hail Mary” or crossing yourself? Has the pledge started to function as a protective talisman? A ward against evil? Oh, dear.

Another accused the student leaders of ‘anti-Americanism’ – yeah, right, uh-huh. The story was posted on the Christian Broadcasting Network website within the week.

Kudos to Andrew Cohen, CBS News’ chief legal analyst. Although he pokes fun at the students, he also points out a few little things that rarely appear in mainstream media:

Because these students obviously have a little extra time on their hands, and with their holiday break coming up, I recommend that they all read Richard J. Ellis’ book, “To the Flag,” an excellent and little-known work that also ought to be required reading for every grown-up politician who might be tempted to finger-point in the debate over the pledge. “The words of the pledge,” Ellis writes, “have inspired millions, but they have also been used to coerce and intimidate; to compel conformity and to silence dissent.” …

It is a mistake for anyone to place the pledge on a par with the Declaration of Independence, the preamble to the Constitution or even the national anthem when it comes to hymns that bring us together in voice and spirit. But people have long misunderstood and misapplied the pledge.

The dispute at Orange Coast College is mainly about loyalty to government and not the controversial words “under God” in the pledge — the dispute that most recently has drawn our legal and political attention. But it doesn’t matter. Even before those words were added in the 1950s as a bulwark against communism, Americans were hurting each other — literally — in the name of the pledge.

In Pennsylvania in the 1930s, Ellis notes in his book, officials didn’t just expel students from school for not reciting the pledge, they whipped and choked and beat them too. School officials would report these students to government authorities, who then got court orders to separate the parents from their children, sometimes for years. Mobs of citizens persecuted Jehovah’s Witnesses and others who refused to recite the pledge. It took a 1943 U.S. Supreme Court decision, which declared that people had a 1st Amendment right not to be forced by the government into reciting the pledge, to stop the physical violence. But divisions over the pledge clearly remain.

So the rabble-rousing students at Orange Coast College are merely doing what their predecessor protesters have done for more than a century. And the folks who are criticizing them have a long history as well.

Never mind Ellis’ must-read book. Listen to what then-Minnesota Gov. Jesse “The Body” Ventura had to say when he vetoed a measure requiring public school students to recite the pledge at least once a week: “There is much more to being a patriot and a citizen than reciting a pledge or raising a flag.”

Kicked out for Boxing

20-year-old boxer Mary McGee was raised by her grandma, who took her from her mother when she was just two weeks old. Her mother wasn’t there for her — or her brothers. Both brothers have served jail time. One is out, while the other is serving out his sentence on a robbery charge in Colorado (where he has lived since grandma shipped him off to boys’ camp).

Turns out, those nights Mary and her grandfather watched boxing on television were illicit under the strict doctrines of Witnesses. So too was training at the P.A.L. gym, and shadow boxing, for hours at a time, in the back yard.

Mary had just won the Chicago Golden Gloves, one of the premier amateur boxing contests in the country, and members of the congregation read about it in the local papers.

Participating in boxing or another martial art is grounds for the Witnesses’ version of excommunication, called disfellowship. Mary had to quit boxing or move out. She cried and she yelled. She agreed to quit.

But she was 17, and she did what teenagers do when they want to do what they want to do.

She trained in secret, and told her grandmother she was staying late at school. In secret she went with the P.A.L. team to a fight in Indianapolis.

“My auntie lived down there and she saw me on TV and called my grandma. She didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to be fighting,” Mary said. “When I got home, I was out.”

Condemning Religions that… What? Ok, is it Hypocrisy or Irony?

You get kicked out for boxing, but.. sexual predators can be JW elders for years.

“The End of False Religion is Near” – the recently distributed tract known as KN37 (Kingdom News 37) – focused on several “traits” manifested by “false” religion. The end of false religion is near… because just about everyone is about to be destroyed at Armageddon? Because JWs are suddenly going to be wildly successful as the “true religion”? Already it’s a weird message. Clearly the reader is not expected to put together exactly how “false religion” will end, but only to go through some fearful checkmarks to make sure that they align themselves with the “true religion.”

kingdomnews

We’ll focus on just one aspect of the tract today, because it’s the part that is most astounding – requiring a gargantuan amount of self-righteousness, hypocrisy, blindness, and sheer nerve. Next to a photo of a man wearing a priest’s collar, it says:

In Western lands church groups ordain gay and lesbian members of the clergy and urge governments to recognize same-sex marriages. Even churches that condemn immorality have tolerated religious leaders who have sexually abused children.

… Do you know of religions that condone immoral sex?

Yes. Yes I do. Silent Lambs is even more stunned and appalled than I am:

Jehovah’s Witnesses are internationally known to be second only to the Catholic Church with regard to the publicity of their child abuse scandal. The expose dates back to the NBC Dateline program that aired in May of 2002. Since that program aired over twenty different programs in eight different countries have offered the testimony of countless children victimized by the policies of Jehovah’s Witnesses on the sexual abuse of children. Key areas were highlighted that were unlike any religion in dealing with these issues. To name a few;

  1. Two-eye witnesses required before a child’s accusation would be accepted as valid in the face of the molesters’ denial.
  2. Molesters required participation in the door to door canvassing work of Jehovah’s Witnesses to study with prospective members.
  3. Re-appointing pedophiles to positions of authority after twenty years of no further two eye- witness accusations.
  4. Disfellowshipping victims and advocates when they attempted to go public with the child abuse problem in the religion.
  5. Encouraging members to testify as character witnesses on behalf of convicted pedophiles at sentencing hearings.
  6. Advocating the violation of federal laws in reporting child abuse by stating to church leadership that if parents chose to not report abuse it was a personal decision.
  7. Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars using donated Worldwide Work monies to defend the “religious right” of pedophiles to prevent arrest and convictions for child rape.
  8. Maintaining a database of over 23,000 sex offenders within the church most of which have not been revealed to members or law enforcement.

While members were actively denouncing “false” religion for allowing the sexual abuse of children during October and November, here’s what’s been going on…

Jesus Cano a member of the elite Bethel family and served as an elder there was convicted of distributing nude pictures of him self trying to solicit anal sex from little boys.

Rick Mclean a former pioneer and Ministerial Servant is currently listed on the U.S. Marshalls’ most wanted list for assaulting numerous JW children in California. A civil lawsuit was filed on behalf of his victims for elders’ negligence in covering up the abuse.

Rex Peterson a long serving elder in Australia was arrested for molesting two little boys. Peterson was well known for providing herbal treatments for cancer in the JW’s.

Claude Martin an elder in Canada was arrested for molesting a ten year old girl while attending the door to door canvassing work of JW’s. He inserted his finger in her vagina while standing at the door of a home they were visiting.

Nestor Jesus Cabada at the threat of local elders in Utah, USA turned himself in for rape of a child, sodomy on a child and aggravated sex abuse of a child with regard to two little Jehovah’s Witness girls.

Enrique Bahena Robles an elder located in Cancun Mexico was charged with aggravated rape of a minor for his assault on a ten year old girl while participating in door to door canvassing work with her.

Most of these multiple offenders were serving in appointed capacity within their congregations in the USA, Australia, Canada and Mexico.

How many current Catholic reports of sexual abuse have been reported in the last thirty days? There are close to one billion Catholics worldwide but just under seven million Jehovah’s Witnesses. Based on those numbers does this appear to be a high amount of bizarre pedophile stories being reported to media from such a small religious group? …

Jehovah’s Witnesses should have a moment of silence for the children their religion has hurt by policies they openly support. They should hang their collective heads in shame for their self-righteous denunciation of other religions on the epidemic problem areas they ignore within their own faith.

How ironic that the Watchtower Society’s protection of sexual predators, child abusers, and pedophiles is condemned in their own tract.

Oppose Flag Idolatry

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Oppose the “Flag Anti-desecration” Amendment.

First off, notice the language of religion and the sacred here. To “desecrate” is to violate the sacredness of something. To be “anti-desecration” is to be against the violation of the sacred. This assumes that the flag is holy, sacred, sanctified, blessed, consecrated.

The American flag should not be made into a golden calf, a graven image; to worship the symbol would be a grave mistake.*

Making a “holy” thing of the American flag is a form of idolatry. The flag is only a piece of cloth. It is wrong to worship a flag. (On this one issue I still agree with the Jehovah’s Witnesses.)

The flag is, at its best, an emblem or symbol of the United States of America. To focus on the symbol is a way of forgetting that to which it points. What it’s meant to stand for are things like our constitutionally-protected rights and values, our freedom, our democracy. (Unfortunately, in some places it stands for other things.)

It is also symbolic of America that we don’t worship a flag. Have one, don’t worship it. We have freedom of expression. Criticism of actions and policies of our government is also a form of patriotism, and part of a functional democracy in the land of the free.

The more important and “sacred” the flag becomes, the uglier the country becomes (including ours). There is a huge difference between patriotism and nationalism. Self-aborbed nationalism is a dead end in our world. We are crossing that line into a major fall already.

Of course, if they somehow pass this thing, a lot of Americans are going to be in deep trouble some weeks after Independence Day (you know, that celebration now referred to as “4th of July”) when ratty flags start getting reported. Maybe that’s one way to start people snitching on one another. Maybe it would even stop the practice of requiring that international students pledge their loyalty in homeroom to a piece of cloth that signifies a country that isn’t even theirs. Or not. (I wonder how many Americans would tolerate that in another country?)

Why are these pseudo-Christians so tied up with flag issues? You’d think they might see the idolatry in it, but maybe not. The current governor of Georgia got elected on the Confederate flag.

What a cowardly path to take. With so many more important issues and challenges facing us, this transparently political strategy is yet another issue aimed at igniting hate and fanning its flames. Like so many other interpretations held by this administration, it is profoundly anti-American. I suppose that anyone who happens to mention that freedom of expression is a Constitutional right, and that enforced patriotism in a democracy seems a little strange will then be called “treasonous”?

We would do better in this global economy to open up to other friendly countries, rather than set ourselves so pridefully and arrogantly above all others. We aren’t in the Crusades or the Inquisitions or the Witch Hunts (not yet anyway). We’re not going to accept Bush as a king, an emperor, or (a) god.

We’re not ready to say “Heil,” not even in Georgia.

The flag itself is meaningful as a symbol of our freedom and democracy, neither of which seem particularly valuable to this administration.

Oppose the “Flag Anti-desecration” Amendment. Oppose flag idolatry.

Oh, and Congress? Get off this constitutional amendment kick. We all know you have something better to do.

*Nelson, I rewrote this a bit after yr email (but yes, it’s a pun). Post revised June 14th.

4th of July is Independence Day

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Not hearing “Independence Day” much this year, so let me say it loud:

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!!

It’s about a revolution against the tyrannies of old King George.

How could so much of our hard-won independence for our freedom and democracy been so senselessly squandered?

How could Independence Day be represented the way I’m seeing it this year? I want to see more patriots and less nationalists!

Give me liberty or give me death – it’s on the license plates still in New Hampshire, isn’t it? Say it is. I’m from Massachusetts, and the history of that great struggle is a matter of pride there. In Georgia…. well.

We’ll still go see the fireworks – just not at Stone Mountain.

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