The amount of anti-Mormonism in the culture right now is shocking. People unload on Mormonism all the time, John McCain’s mother, the New Republic…. Mitt Romney says he’s going to deal with it. Maybe give a speech.
Last night on Hardball, Chris Matthews brought up JFK’s famous speech to the Houston ministers in September 1960. In that speech, our first Catholic president-to-be promised the Protestants that he wouldn’t take directions from the Pope. (Did he use birth control?) The speech rang the bell of secularism, and helped elect JFK.
I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant
nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accept instructions
on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any
other ecclesiastical source; where no religious body seeks to impose its
will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts
of its officials, and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an
act against one church is treated as an act against all.
Beautiful. Anyway, Matthews said that no one could give that speech now, because politics and religion are so "overlapped." Matthews is a political genius, and he’s on to something. But I hope he’s not right. What we need right now is greater secularism. The world is inflamed by religion, everyone is sick of religion in this country.
And one thing that means is that Matthews should grow a spine and talk about something he knows a ton about: the religious left, as I call it, the Israel lobby, which has a very strong religious component. Do it now, before we bomb Iran….
Aye, Matthews y' potato eatin' runt of the litter, whay doncha grrrow a pair already, preferably a weighty one, an' focus that there laser in yir eyeball on somethin' meaty lad! You're givin' us apples arseways, empty calories mac! Ya got a TV show! Do they write yer lines for ya now paddy!?
Me and all me pub mates implore you, Matthews, son of Ireland, do it for the Irish, do it angrily, for IREPAC (our new mega lobby), do it f'r d' shinin' filds 'v cammack o'er Killarney ol' mac! Ta se prainneach!
Whew. Don't have to break out the brogue much anymore.
But really, thank God, the Catholic one I mean, that I don't suffer from blind tribal loyalty. Or I'd have to embrace Establishment meat boy Matthews as one of my own.
James Joyce however… you know he WAS born not too far from some of my ancestors? Just… pointing that out… it was quite close indeed… and stories you know… they could've come… don't come out of nowhere… I'm not trying to imply it was anybody personally related… or that your average mic's gonna turn out the most advanced English prose in history… I'm just sayin'… well.. WE IRISH MUST BE BLOODY GENIUSES!
In fact, when I think about it, our intellect, our sheer mental ferocity, and the complete and total mastery of our second language even ended up getting us status as God's chosen "lucky" people! It is a fact! It says it right there, "Luck of the Irish"… That's as old as time! And where did that come from? From God! In the earliest manuscripts of the Bible! There are scholars in Ireland who can back me up!
And I'm saying that as someone not even blinded by any tribal loyalties!
On Mormonism and the necessity for a more vibrant secularism, some light might be shone on the State of Utah.
An utterly corrupt State, rogue State, in which the Mormon infrastructure dominates State institutions for beautifully secular purposes – personal advantage, personal vendettas, and the filthy lucre.
I saw a focus group on C SPAN, that's how bored I was. Anyway, they were asking republicans about romney and they were all like "no because he's a morman and blah blah it's cult christianity" I was pretty surprised. I don't know much about mormanism but it doesn't seem that different from regular christianity in practice. It's socially conservative and prone to creepy used car salesman ness. He is a pretty typical republican to me.
I actually think he moved to Boston specifically to NOT be governor of Utah so he wouldn't be supermorman.
Speaking of ghettoizing. Gosh it’s been almost a year since Ms. Tove Johansson from Stockholm, an International Solidarity Movement worker had her faced smashed by 100 Jewish settlers in Hebron. Some of you may remember that while she and some of her fellow volunteers attempted to escort some Palestinian children to school safely in Hebron they were surrounded by 100 racist goons who after showering them in spit, chanted in Hebrew “We killed Jesus, we’ll kill you too!”. Then one of the settler/thugs stepped forward and smashed a bottle across her face, breaking her cheekbone, fracturing her skull and damaging her eye muscles. I just sent ISM some money to assist them in continuing their efforts in Ms. Johansson’s name and encourage others to do so as well.
link to homo-sapien-underground.blogspot.com
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Rachel Corrie lives.
Interesting article that racial disparities, not disparities in income, underlying differences in academic performance in San Francisco:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/11/12/MNH8T5LTC.DTL
The major is saying it isn't genetic, but rather cultural. The truth is, as we know quite well, is that it is both. There is a "genetic gap" in America that needs to be addressed.
The New York Times, Nov 11th last issue, has an article on the
genetic gap. The DNA experts are running around in circles because of the increasing scientific evidence on this taboo subject.