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Blasphemy: Time for Muslim soul searching – Opinion – Al Jazeera English

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Blasphemy: Time for Muslim soul searching – Opinion – Al Jazeera English

I very much approve of this column but there a few specific parts I’m not down with.

“The question that both Roger Cohen and Gérard Biard need kindly to consider is the fact that not just the French, but European imperialism in general, and not just the Europeans, but American militarism par excellence are in the habit of disregarding not just what laws in Kabul and Riyadh, but Muslims in general think when they launch military conquests against them.”

So, basically, the author would like “the West” to give more respect to the views of “Islam” than “Islam” is to give respect to the views of “the West” because of what basically amounts to white guilt? Mmmmm, nope! Doesn’t sound reasonable to me.

Western nations “forfeited their right” to national identity when they engaged in Colonialism? So, people living now -and all of their descendants ever-, people who did not take part in Colonialism, should pay for the sins of their ancestors and forfeit their rights to a national identity for eternity? Mmmmmmm, nope!

“Islam” seeks to affirm its identity but nations in “the West” do not have the same right to one? Not seeing it. I with the author in that pretending history did not happen is bad. I also agree that “the West” has indeed influenced the Middle East -often in a very negative way. Unless one favors a return to the bloody Crusades though, I am firmly convinced the past need stay where it is. No matter has happened in the past, be it good or evil,  the people of each nation own their own right to self-determination. Period.
Unless “Islam” is volunteering to follow and respect the laws of “the West” (err, ahh, say freedom of speech?!) what business have they demanding “the West” abide by the laws and traditions of “Islam?” They should stop demanding what they do not themselves offer.

The author talks about the sins of the “the West” like it is news to any citizen living in any of those countries. I suspect that “Islam” and “the West” are similar in that both populations feature a number of blind followers, a number of well-informed thinkers and a good measure of people in who fall somewhere in between. With that in mind, it is ridiculous to suggest that, among the large population of “the West,” there is no one who is even remotely aware of all of the transgressions of European nobility during the Crusades, the evils committed by nations in “the West” while they engaged in Colonial and Imperial pursuits, or the tragedies perpetrated on innocent civilians during the course of recent conflicts in the Middle East.

The author sounds like a very reasonable and intelligent person. I am sure that he would not suggest that any country that might be considered part of “Islam” existed in a fairy tale world where the will of the government and the will of the people are always 100% aligned. Under the best of circumstances that never even comes close to happening. Why would the flip-side of this farce be anymore believable?

Does the author actually mean to suggest that thinkers in “the West,” are completely ignorant of any of their own country’s histories that took place before the current governments were enacted?

Does he truly intend to posit that such thinking people, the segment in every society who takes care to be well informed, are completely and 100% oblivious of a millennium’s worth of “the West’s” history?

Does the author really postulate that these same people would try and cover this up? Really?

Religious zealots of any stripe are wont to rewrite reality to suit their own purposes. To suggest that all of the individuals who compose “the West” want to cover up the truth of history is quite a broad stroke though. I mean, seriously? Really? Really!?!

Which bring up an off topic but oddly appropriate display of the cultural variances. It’s an oldie but a goodies.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I know he’s speaking to his audience in a commonly understood language of imagery but still…

“Our task however can no longer be limited to finding fault or exposing the supreme hypocrisy of ‘the West.'”

I wouldn’t have come out and said it but expecting those who values you do not respect to respect your own is a supreme form of hypocrisy. The tragedy is that as long as both sides are locked into a struggle of the collective wills for dominance and control of the other, neither side will prevail. This, I believe, is where my own point of view and the point of view of the author converge.

In fact, I’m down with pretty everything he says from the next sentence on.

Living together is going to happen so we have to make it work for everyone and the people shouldn’t let those who are crowned clerics or leaders of a particular sect speak for the whole.

Damn Straight.

Cell receptor research wins Americans chemistry Nobel | Reuters

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Cell receptor research wins Americans chemistry Nobel | Reuters

cool.

Can we make a law that anyone who is against the physical sciences being taught isn’t allow to benefit from any discoveries made in the physical sciences?

Let ’em think the earth is flat and God put dinosaur bones into the cliffs as a joke, without modern medicine they’ll die off much, much quicker and stop being such an annoyance to the rest of us.

Syria and the moral decline of the American Left

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Syria and the moral decline of the American Left – Opinion – Al Jazeera English

What a pile of usless nothing.

I whole-heartedly disagree with the premise and dispute his supporting facts.

This guy’s understand of the left/right paradigm in American politics is wholly lacking.

One columnist that hardly anyone has heard of is a far cry from a united voice for starters.

The author needs to take his own emotional perspective and park it somewhere before trying to write objectively.

As Race Tightens, The Electoral Map Still Favors Obama : It’s All Politics : NPR

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As Race Tightens, The Electoral Map Still Favors Obama : It’s All Politics : NPR

All of those ignorant mis- and un-informed dipshits who are always ranting about the electoral college and how it stole the election from Gore and how we need to do away with it so every vote counts (um, duh, if you get rid of the EC you are moving in the opposite direction of every vote counting you fucking retarded imbeciles!!!) need to sit down and shut the fuck up right the fuck now. Actually yesterday would be good.

How To Know If You Are White according to Black Girl Dangerous

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Black Girl Dangerous (How To Know If You Are White)

White person tha I am I wouldn’t try to define what it is to be a POC but since this is an article taking a postion on what it is to be white….

Well, basically it’s on.

First and foremost, I know exactly what she is trying to get at and her point (although obscured) is a fair and pertinent point to make; either you are white or you aren’t and if there is any question… Well, that probably means you are white. If you have to qualify your non-whiteness with an explanation, you’re probably white. Totally spot on. I’m with her.

….But.

When it comes to sociology, terminology is both very important and very easily to lost in. I think she obscures the point she is making a bit. Let me point a few things that jump to mind.

First off and most obviously, I’m white but I have had some of those things happen to me. Is there some sort of scoring or ranking system being involved with being white? If I am, say, only 7 out of 10 white answers on the scale, am I still white?

Note: Of course I am. I’m whitey, white, white white. You can call me Snow White if you like. If I a Stephen Colbert here though, and claim I cannot see white, I don’t pass as 100% white.

Second, what about all of the African Americans through-out history who, through none of their own doing, could “pass?” Whiteness chose them, so they aren’t black? Whoa! As a white person that is about as deep into the discussion of the experience of African Americans with various skin tones as I’m willing to go. Being both awake and white, I realize I don’t know WTF I’m talking about when it comes to talking about what it means to be black and I best tread lightly. I realize that but I’m also a little mouthy so I have to at least say, “Whoa…” before I move on.  

Moving on. I think that one of the difficulties we as Americans have in discussing in race and the issue particular to African American community is that we are by-and-large limited to very restrictive paradigm to explain things in. For most of our history we have pretended that race is a -pardon the pun- black and white issue. Race is rather multi-dimensional.

As I mentioned I am white as the driven snow and I’ve already dipped my toe further than I probably should into the pool of discussion about the differences among or between black people so I’ll use whites to illustrate what I am saying here. I want to be very specific about the fact that I am not talking about not different levels of whiteness but different kinds of whiteness. (Levels is a whole other can of worms that is too messy to open up in here.) There are differences in the kind of whiteness that is Mayflower white, descendants of Jews who suffered thorugh concentration camps white or survivors of a racial genocide white. When we say white to refer to all of these different kinds of people with the same word.

When I say, “I love peanut butter ice cream,” and “I love my children,” it is easy to infer the difference in meaning that I intend. Race is a little trickier. I could mean annoying Aryan looking surfer dudes with no rhythm when I call someone white. Then again I could call someone white and mean that they are uber blood blood. I could even mean that they are white trash.*

To complicate things even further white people are not really a -again, pardon the pun- homogeneous group. In my neighborhood and the surrounding areas in addition to all of the plain white people running about their are those that distinctly Greek, or distinctly Irish, even distinctly Armenian. For now, let’s just use ‘people who you wouldn’t use another word in front of the word “American” to define their identity.’ Where those lines are certainly is a discussion in itself but let’s just go with that for now.

Plain white people are just white and American. White people other than plain white people are something-American. I’m not saying these people aren’t white, I say they thinking of themselves differently than plain white people do. Irish- Americans are often loathe to lump themselves in with the Protestants who who were historically so abusive and oppressive to their ancestors. Jewish people sometimes like to differentiate themselves from their goyim neighbors. Both groups have a different relationship with race and ethnic origin than plain white people. For example, historically both groups could have laid claim to the majority of conditions Black Girl Dangerous lays out as defining someone who is not white.

It’s hard enough to determine exactly what white means when you are only talking about white people. The discussion of blacks and whites interacting is generally more emotionally charged so it gets even trickier. That doesn’t even start to take into account Asians, Polynesians, Native Americans, or Hispanics. Race in America may very well be a black and white issue but it is an issue larger than just blacks and whites. It’s like we haven’t even begun to establish a framework of language for race in America is yet, no wonder our discussions of race are so fragmented.

Sigh.

* – What a topic in itself. I will resist for now. No, I won’t. Oh, the sardonic comedy that is white trash. I think we can all agree that they are amusing as hell. On TV. Not in real life. Not in my neighborhood. Having them live nearby is not funny at all. OK, more later on that goldmine of a topic.

Arkansas Republicans’ comments on slavery, Muslims stir controversy | Reuters

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Arkansas Republicans’ comments on slavery, Muslims stir controversy | Reuters

I have a better idea, how about we expell all moronic bigots from this country?

An IQ test at the polls maybe and if you fail you are immediated deported to…

Well….

How about Arkansas? We could wall if off and just dump all of the idots and haters in there to settle it among themselves.