Daily Topics - Monday September 13th, 2010
Quote of the Day: I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. ~Booker T. Washington
Hour One: Why don't we handle Muslim extremists the same way we handled Christian extremists...the KKK? Thom confronts Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association www.afa.net
Hour Two: "The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama" - Media Matters Senior Fellow Will Bunch talks to Thom about his new book www.mediamatters.org
Hour Three: Chemicals from the Gulf in your rain...is it just the beginning? Marine toxicologist Dr. Riki Ott will be here www.rikiott.com
Comments
Thank you Thom for making your Christian guest admit he would not renounce the violent words in the Bible (all the while insisting that no Muslim would renounce any of the violence in the Koran).
I think true believer (and moderate/liberal) Christians and Muslims absolutely renounce the violent parts of their religious books, but mostly by ignoring it because it's embarrassing.
We're ALL from Kenya and Ethiopia. No decent maps three million years ago.
Do 50% of Repubs REALLY think Obama is a Muslim? Or do they just say that to be part of the pack, since they have a pack mentality and think if they question their conservative leaders & preachers that they'll somehow be blasphemous and kicked out of the group? Many Repubs call themselves pro-life, but they'll have an abortion or get one for a friend/family member in a second if they need one. They go along with the party line because they're too afraid to think for themselves, because if they think for themselves and use logic, they might realize that their party lies, cheats and steals and hates this country and them. And then they might have to realize that Democrats (real ones) are right. They're like abused spouses who are afraid to challenge their abuser and instead tell themselves their abuser really does love them and justifies what happens to them.
Or they're just really dumb.
Gene--you're exactly right.
Your guest asked about where in the New Testament there was a reference to killing non-believers...
Revelations calls for the death (or damning to perdition) or conversion of all non-Christians prior to the second coming of Jesus. Kind of a "death to the infidels" clarion call if you ask thoughtful people. Keep in mind this is not a "story" to most Christians, it is an eventuality. Additionally, many American Christians predicate their "support" for Israel upon this theological "eventuality"...i.e. inflaming the conflict between Jews and Muslims today will create the necessary conditions for the final battle and the subsequent return of Jesus...tomorrow?
Hmm...
Re: Pagan
Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning "country dweller", "rustic"[1]) is a blanket term, typically used to refer to polytheistic religious traditions, although from a Christian perspective, the term can encompass all non–Abrahamic religions.[2][3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganism
In da details.
Why don't the democrats point out the details of the good thangs that been doin' for us.
Such as, credit card statements now have an easy to see note as to how long and how much will be paid if you pay only minimum payment.
I have a new insurance policy period at work, and there is now 100% coverage for preventative doctor visits and tests. The is a tangible result from the somewhat health care reform.
Don't need no earth shaking changes for this dude. These simple ones that I can see and experience is what I be lookn' for.
By the by...this reading of Revelations happens to be more mainstream than many will admit. Just think about the implications of this belief in the end times:
Today, many American Christians support Isreal (as I said above), but of course this only goes so far as to when Jesus shows up and all the non-Christians are "left behind"...in this scenerio, Jewish Israelies (whom American Christians "support") are pretty much screwed, and all the pladitudinal support offered by contemporary Christians goes out the window.
I didn't read the "Left Behind" series, but I read that one of the last books was about Jesus coming back and slaughtering all non-believers. Kind of bloody. It is a very popular book series for Christians.
It seems to me that Fundamentalism is a human condition, and that one uses their religion to reinforce their world view.
No need to read sub-par literature on this one..."it's written in the Bible".
Command Post
Gerald’s comments are coming to you from his hideaway bunker deep inside enemy territory.
Here is his mission statement from the words of St. Ambrose.
I SHALL PASS THIS WAY BUT ONCE. ANY GOOD THAT I CAN DO LET ME DO IT NOW BECAUSE I SHALL NOT PASS THIS WAY AGAIN.
It seems to me that we need to return to the principles of the Enlightenment, least we return the Dark Ages.
Hey Jeanie, who exactly would Jesus consider a non-believer? Someone who doesn't go to church, or someone who doesn't practice what Jesus preached?
I'm kinda' betting that if Jesus did come back and slaughter non-believers, his first stops would be churches on Sunday ;-)
Perhaps also the house of the author of the "Left Behind" series after that.
N
Zombie Apocalypse
Is Islam a, or the, “religion of peace”?
http://www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com/zblog/2010/08/zombie-apocalypse/
All in all, a pretty good article.
Great point Max...one of my favorite bumber stickers of all time:
"If going to Church on Sunday makes you a Christian, does going to the garage make you a car?"
And, on the Enlightenment vs the Dark Ages...well, it seems that those Enlightenment thinkers were too interested in individual liberty, free thinking, and rational humanism (the idea that if we share our collective knowledge, progress is inevidable) for the contemporary American political landscape.
I have been able to link Kristof's article, "Is this America." Apparently you will have a problem linking the article from my comment. I apologize.
Thank you for the apology, I forgive you...
Wait, does that make me a Christian?
The dangers of Fundamentalism
...The great Sufi scholar Sayyed Hosein Nassr recently estimated that a minority of Muslims are active supporters of Jihad against the West. His estimate was a tenth of all Muslims. Gee, by my reckoning, that still makes one hundred million Muslims who detest our permissive way of life, our lack of an orthodoxy, our equal esteem for women along with men. As one radio pundit put it right after 9/11, they hate the fact that American women wear bikinis and speak their minds.
- Zarathustra Speaks
http://www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com/zblog/2010/08/zombie-apocalypse/
Encouraging Words...Canadian imams condemn radical Islam http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j8FUc2kW5Eaz_z3-FAhHgPaSrnYA
Re: The Enlightenment vs The Dark Ages
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=35011834183&ref=ts
A fresh voice of reason in an unreasonable political landscape.
Obama could produce an original birth certificate from Hawaii and the Reich wing still would claim it were a forgery.
If you pay too much attention to the corporate media (whichever "way" you swing), you might think that if, as regular Americans, we disagree on anything it means we should hate each other. As foolish as that is, it is similarly foolish to believe that political dialogue is some how more inflamatory today than at other times in history.
Consider this, from French Enlightenment thinker (or philosophe) Denis Diderot who said, "Men will not be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."
Ouch...
And on the President's birth place and religion...
Ok, if you don't accept that he was born in the US, at this point you should seek therapy.
If you think he is a Muslim, you're ignorant, but that's cool, lots of people are ignorant about a myriad of issues that really, in the big picture, just don't matter.
If he was a Muslim, and if you have a problem with the potential that a Muslim could be president (or a Hindu, Buddist, or an agnostic for that matter) you're a bigot.
Why be afraid of what you are? Take ownership of your bigotry and be honest with yourself. Self-critical analysis is at least a starting point to intellectual enlightenment.
re: #22:
If that Muslim scholar estimates that a tenth of Muslims support jihad against the West, what percentage, do you think, of Christians support jihad against the Muslim world? I would guess way more than a tenth. Seems to be at least half of Christians in this country alone, which would be over 100 million too. So what would the point be? That rightwing members of 2 old and large religions don't trust each other? We already knew that.
Jihad = military struggle and also an individual, spiritual struggle. http://middleeast.about.com/od/religionsectarianism/g/me080122a.htm
wow, sorry...it's difficult to call others out for ignorance when you ain't be spellin crectly.
Buddhist, my most humble appologies Prince Siddhartha Gautama.
Beyond that, this is the age of the twit..."creative" spelin in the knorm.
Re: 17
Very Good!
Oops! Re: 27
Very Good!
Re: what percentage, do you think, of Christians support jihad against the Muslim world?
My guess is that it's 10% as well. Fundamentalist Christian, Fundamentalist Muslim, it's all a mindset that plagues humanity.
"Jihad = military struggle and also an individual, spiritual struggle."
Semantically, it's actually the other way around. A Muslim may commit to a personal jihad in order to muster up the energy to wake up early enough to pray in the morning, co-exist with a problematic relative, fast during the month of Ramadan, or have the patience to deal with ignorant bigots who try to tell them what their religion is really about.
Thus, jihad, to the vast majority of Muslims in the world is more appropriately associated with common, every day situations as opposed to war on the infidels. Go figure, in our (American) cultural frame of reference we've decided it is upon us to define terms in a foreign language without understanding that context is everything.
Are there Muslims committed to holy war, and ostensibly war against America? Yes, and they are flipping crazy. How many of you lose sleep over the white supremacist militia groups in northern Idaho (for example) who teach their kids to shoot guns and hate the government? Not me, those guys are flipping crazy, and they don't represent the majority of white Americans. Are they dangerous? Yes, but tell me the military strategy that will ultimately prevent every religiously motivated nut job on the planet from blowing himself up or shooting up an abortion clinic.
Thom, by allowing them to frame the conversation, you've already lost! Why not have discussions with Ravi Batra, Peter W. Galbraith, Chris Hedges, etc? The Birth Certificate, Immigration, Muslims, etc. are a SHELL GAME! Move ON to Real Issues! Talk about Our Morally Bankrupt Culture. It's Our Society Stupid!
You know if Obama's Birth Certificate is so dang important to these Birthers concept of the constitution requirements for Presidential eligibility, how come they weren't out and about questioning W's qualifications... such as having the more than 50% of the votes in states that weren't completely counted (looking at you Florida, and Ohio).
What a load of thinly veiled racism. He ain't white, so he must have been born in another country.
I truly hope Obama serves out two terms. Then I want to see another minority win the presidency, just to see these bigoted morons heads explode.
N
Overcoming Ignorance? Feeling v. Thinking.
How do we do it? Our Uneducated Electorate IS The Problem! No One "Thinks" anymore. We have a Society of people who only FEEL.
Kathy, where were you and your outrage when George W Bush was illegally appointed president by the Supreme Court??
If you didn't speak up then, then sit down and shut up now!!
Re: Natural Born Citizen
Status as a natural born Citizen of the United States is one of the requirements set by the United States Constitution for candidates to be eligible for election to the office of President orVice President.
There is not any authoritative, universally accepted definition of the phrase "natural born citizen". There are several different views that have been advocated by various people over the years, but nothing is a settled matter of law.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_born_citizen_of_the_United_States
Oh lordy caller Kathy is quite a crazed and paranoid person. Seems like warping the words of the Bible to your point of view game can also be applied to the Constitution... course the SCOTUS figured that out long ago.
N
The Repugnikans must be really desperate to bring up this birth certificate crap again.
If I were sitting in Thom's chair, my response to these callers would be, "this is about nothing other than racism, and you should be ashamed of yourself."
P.S. I disagree that Glenn Beck is the Antichrist. Sarah Palin is the Antichrist.
DRichards, perhaps test tube babies and cesarian births disqualify you from being "Natural Born"?
N
Maxrot
Good point ;)
Kathy spoke as one of authority, yet wikipedia states "There is not any authoritative, universally accepted definition of the phrase "natural born citizen".
Where does that leave the "snowflake" babies? I may be wrong on the term but isn't that what they call the kids that were the product of "test tubes" in the argument over stem cell research..."won't somebody think about the snowflakes?"
And, damnit, being described as an "anti-colonial" Kenyan should be a badge of honor...read anything by the Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o and you'll learn what neo-colonialism actually is and why we should all be "anti-colonial" Kenyans.
Hey Thom,
On Friday Night's Rachael Maddow show, she showed a table that broke down how the wealthy and poor have done during republican and democratic rule from 1947 (i think) to 2005. Wow!!! It added to my arsenal to argue against conservatives and I'm sure your listeners would be strengthened in their ability to argue with conservatives if you discussed it on your show. By the way, I love your show,
Thanks,
John
Snopes.com comes to us from a trailer park. True Americans come from trailer parks. I have found out from a quack who called Thom on his show that I cannot be president. I am 71 years old, born in America but I cannot be president because my father was not born in America. My mother was born in America.
What is the tune Thom uses for the lead-in and lead-out in his program? It's a march with horn section and synthesizers.
Thom-
PLEASE, every second you spend on birther nonsense, the wingnuts win. You have a zero tolerance policy for 9/11 "truther" calls, please apply this policy to birthers as well. Truthers at least have a point in questioning the official stories of 9/11, birthers are ONLY a distraction. We are inside 60 days to the midterms; let's spend more time shooting down the "Republicans will take over Congress" meme by highlighting races we need to win and seats we need to hold. Working hard where I live, wanting to hear more from others working hard and needing help!
My life has been totally shot. I am not an American because of my father's birth in another country. Newt Gingrich is destroying Catholicism. He is a convert to Catholicism. He plans to run for president and receive the support from a good percentage of Catholic crazies. I have known Catholic converts and they are better Catholics than many cradle Catholics. I am ashamed to admit but it is true. Please do not judge Catholics from infamous Catholics like Gingrich, Hannity, O'Reilly, and Ann Coulter!
I am now in my twilight years and I must live with the fact that I am not an American. Who am I??? I must be a man without a country.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
Hello All
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Is The Ground Zero Mosque Fiasco All About The Money?
http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2010/09/12/is-the-ground-zero-mosque-fiasco-all-about-the-money/?utm_source=alertsnewpost