They Are Not Like Us:

Stoning Death Sick Form Of Honor Killing
By John David Powell
May 14, 2007

The appearance on the Internet this week of a video showing the stoning to death of a teenage Kirdish girl in Iraq underscores this writer's long-held contention that "they are not like us."

Here's what happened as reported by London's Daily Mail. Hardline religous leaders and male family members of Du'a Khalil Aswad condemned the 17-year-old girl to death by stoning because of her relationship with a Sunni Muslim boy. Aswad's family belongs to Yezidi, a Kurdish religious group in Iraq. The religious leaders and family members claimed she dishonored the family by failing to return home one night. Other reports suggest the "honor killing" had a lot to do with her apparent conversion to Islam.

Regardless of the reason, on or about April 7 of this year, eight or nine men dragged the girl into the street and stoned her for half an hour until she died, as a large crowd stood around and watched in the predominately Kurdish town near Mosul.

More here ...

They are not like us? I submit that's pure baloney. They are just like us. The only difference is that their laws are governed by their fundamentalist religion while our laws are separated from our religion.

If we removed the separation of church and state, allowing laws generated by our religious fundamentalists to become the law of the land, we'd see doctors executed with impunity in family planning clinics. Jerry Falwell's ilk would gleefully stone gays to death.

Historically, there is certainly ample precedent demonstrating that our fundamentalists can be just as blood thirsty as their fundamentalists. Witch hunts of the Inquisition are only one example of just how blood thirsty our religious fundamentalists can be. The Spanish imposition of Catholicism on the native peoples by the sword in the Americas is another example.

Closer to home and to our time, some of our religious fundamentalists believe it's alright to kill "abortion" doctors, execution style and run afoul of the law as a result of that fervently held belief. In spite of laws to the contrary, they believe they are answerable to a higher authority, that the murders are justified, and that they are acting as an agent of God (how arrogant to imagine one is picked by God to take the life of a fellow human being!).

Honor killing on religious grounds is small thing when compared to the wholesale death meted out by other fundamentalists at other times.

They are just like us - only we have the shield of secular law to protect us from ourselves.

"Religion is an abomination. With or without it, good men will do good things and evil men will do bad things but, for good men to do the most evil things ... that takes religion!"

~Unknown

Times Past

Moonlight at White Mountain Reservation
Knishba Ruins, Arizona

Jerry Falwell's Hit Parade

The Right's holy fool.
By Timothy Noah
Posted Tuesday, May 15, 2007, at 6:56 PM ET

God, they say, is love, but the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who died May 15, hit the jackpot trafficking in small-minded condemnation. The controversies Falwell generated followed a predictable loop. 1) Falwell would say something hateful or clownish about some person or group associated with liberalism. 2) A public outcry would ensue. 3) Falwell would apologize and retract the offending comment. 4) Falwell would repeat the comment, slightly rephrased.

More ...

Backyard Beauty

Willow in Bloom on a Gray Day
Tucson, AZ

No, no ... tell us how you REALLY feel ...

Christopher Hitchens expresses a few extemporaneous opinions about the late tower of morality and ethics, Jerry Falwell.

I cannot agree with Hitchen's opinions about the war in Iraq ... but his point of view regarding Falwell rings true.

Brazil's Indians Offended by Pope Comments

By Raymond Colitt
Reuters
Monday, May 14, 2007; 3:15 PM

BRASILIA - Outraged Indian leaders in Brazil said on Monday they were offended by Pope Benedict's "arrogant and disrespectful" comments that the Roman Catholic Church had purified them and a revival of their religions would be a backward step.

In a speech to Latin American and Caribbean bishops at the end of a visit to Brazil, the Pope said the Church had not imposed itself on the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

(Emphasis added)

Read the rest here ...

It's said that everyone is welcome to have their own opinion but not their own facts. One must keep in mind that Herr Ratzinger is a former member of the Hitler-Jugend and, therefore, quite predisposed to living in a racial fantasy.

It seems to me that in many cases, confronted by conversion by the sword, indigenous people took the approach "How Christian do I have to be for you to leave us alone." That would be why, throughout Yucatan (and MANY other areas, as well), one can find offerings to the old gods right along side the church.

My god, it must have been marvelous for the native peoples of the Americas to have all those wonderful people come all the way from Europe to help them cope with problems then never had!

The stone is cast

by Alan Wolfe, salon.com

Jerry Falwell spent a career demonizing others. Upon his death, what else could he expect in return?

One never wants to speak ill of the dead, but in the case of Jerry Falwell, how can one not? Falwell will always be remembered for his "700 Club" comment in the wake of Sept. 11: "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'" Even though Falwell later apologized, the damage had been done: A sacred moment had been used for profane purpose.

And that, really, is Falwell's legacy. To the religious life of the United States he made no significant contribution. But to the political life of the country, he made one: He founded the Moral Majority. In so doing, Falwell managed to take something holy -- one does not have to be a Christian to admire the life and teachings of Jesus Christ -- and turned it into something partisan and divisive. Falwell, the quintessential conservative Christian, was always more conservative than Christian. To the extent that history will remember him, it will be as a politician, not as a preacher.

Finish the thought ...

Television evangelist Falwell dies at 73

He's in a better place now ... for everyone.

The Real Cost of War

What do you think it's worth?

the church of stop shopping

Statement of Belief ::

Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir believe that Consumerism is overwhelming our lives.



The corporations want us to have experiences only through their products. Our neighborhoods, "commons" places like stoops and parks and streets and libraries, are disappearing into the corporatized world of big boxes and chain stores. But if we "back away from the product" - even a little bit, well then we Put The Odd Back In God! The supermodels fly away and we're left with our original sensuality. So we are singing and preaching for local economies and real - not mediated through products -- experience. We like independent shops where you know the person behind the counter or at least - you like them enough to share a story.

We ask that local activists who are defending themselves against supermalls, nuke plants, gentrification -- call us and we'll come and put on our "Fabulous Worship!" Remember children... Love is a Gift Economy! — The Rev

Right HERE, Right NOW ...

The Creaton Museum

The Creation Museum, opening May 28, 2007, presents a "walk through history." Designed by a former Universal Studios exhibit director, this state-of-the-art 60,000 square foot museum brings the pages of the Bible to life.

A fully engaging, sensory experience for guests. Murals and realistic scenery, computer-generated visual effects, over fifty exotic animals, life-sized people and dinosaur animatronics, and a special-effects theater complete with misty sea breezes and rumbling seats. These are just some of the impressive exhibits that everyone in your family will enjoy.

Charter Memberships will soon be Extinct ...

Stop your education now ... the answer to all questions is "It's God's will."

In the meantime:

Statement of Concern about Impact of AIG's Creation 'Museum'
by Glenn Branch, National Center for Science Education, Inc.
Thanks to khhl59 for forwarding the e-mail.

RD.net has received the following e-mail, which came from Glenn Branch from the National Center for Science Education, Inc:

Subject: Statement of concern regarding AiG museum

Dear Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana friends of NCSE,

With the young-earth creation ministry Answers in Genesis scheduled to open its lavish creation museum in northern Kentucky at the end of the month, there is a great deal of concern among the scientific and educational communities in the adjacent states about its impact on the public understanding of evolution.

As part of NCSE's efforts, we are inviting university scientists in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana to sign a statement expressing their concern about the effect that the museum may have on the scientific literacy of the students they will be teaching. The statement reads, in full:

We, the undersigned scientists at universities and colleges in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana, are concerned about scientifically inaccurate materials at the Answers in Genesis museum. Students who accept this material as scientifically valid are unlikely to succeed in science courses at the college level. These students will need remedial instruction in the nature of science, as well as in the specific areas of science misrepresented by Answers in Genesis.

If you qualify to sign the statement, we urge you to do so, by visiting:
Scientific Inaccuracies at AIG's Creation "Museum"

Dawkins Accused of being a Fundamentalist

You're as much a fundamentalist as those you criticise.

Dawkins replys: "No, please, do not mistake passion, which can change its mind, for fundamentalism, which never will. Passion for passion, an evangelical Christian and I may be evenly matched. But we are not equally fundamentalist. The true scientist, however passionately he may "believe", in evolution for example, knows exactly what would change his mind: evidence! The fundamentalist knows that nothing will."

More of it here ...

A Point to Ponder

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled."

- Richard Feynman