Talk about raging ego trips. You have to read this drivel over at WingNutDaily by Faith2Action’s Janet Folger. The author of “The Criminalization of Christianity,” Janet’s merits a tiny violin seranade for her tale of what would happen if Democrats, specifically Hillary Clinton, are in charge.
She believes that she and the rest of the bible-beating crowd will be imprisoned for their beliefs. It’s the end of the world as Janet knows it — among other things, the U.S. will be overrun with homosexualists and abortionists, and home schoolers will be under attack by the state.
Nov. 20, 2010Folger goes on to assail her fellow “Christians” for not seeing the warning signs — that Daddy D and the rest of the professional pious set wasted precious energy picking from the fakers in the clown car — Mitt and Rudy — instead of backing Huck — who would preserve their rights.To the Resistance:
I’m writing this letter from prison, where I’ve been since the beginning of 2010. Since Hillary was elected in ‘08, Christian persecution in America has gotten even worse than we predicted.
When the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” was signed into law, my radio program was yanked off the air along with all the others that dared discuss moral issues on Christian radio. The networks just couldn’t bring themselves to air a pro-abortion program or one that advocates the homosexual agenda for the government mandated “balance” because broadcasting lies went against their basic beliefs – I don’t blame them.
We knew “Thought Crimes” was in danger of becoming law back when it passed Congress in 2007, but thankfully, President Bush kept his promise to veto it. But, tragically, Hillary signed that most dangerous bill in America – ushering in the criminalization of Christianity. And now, even my book, “The Criminalization of Christianity,” has been banned as “hate speech” just as I predicted when I wrote it back in 2005.
When the “Employment Non-Discrimination Act” (”Thought Crimes” for the Workplace) became law, businesses and ministries were targeted by homosexual activists and were forced to close when they wouldn’t comply with a law forcing them to hire those opposed to their beliefs on moral issues.
When they canceled my program, banned my book and targeted my ministry, I knew it was only a matter of time before I’d be forced into “prison ministry” against my will. Unfortunately for our nation, that ministry is growing fast. A homeschooling mom was assigned the cell next to me. I try to comfort her, but she cries constantly at the thought of her kids being raised in government foster care.
There was a tier-one candidate that stood for our goals of life and marriage – that man was Gov. Mike Huckabee. Had we nominated Huckabee to run against Hillary, the stark difference between the two would have brought voters out in droves. And we never would have seen the Supreme Court appointments of Charles Schumer and Diane Feinstein. If only there were a way to go back in time to change … I’ve gotta go. The guard spotted me writing again.Yeah, like we’d be happy with those two on SCOTUS.
91 Responses to “Drama Queen fundie Janet Folger’s unhinged vision of the future”
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Ms. Folger is a prime exemplar of that species first named so aptly by Dr. P.Z. Myers: demented fuckwit.
Sad when the only argument the Reichwing can put up is The Left (*sinister music*) would be worse.
At this point, after the last 7-years, that’s an argument that must be very difficult to make with a straight face and without mind-altering chemicals. But I guess wingnut koolaid is a mind-altering substance…
How do the right-wing quasi-christians even think of these things? Is it projection? Is it what they plan to do to everyone else?
So I take it that Folger wants to remove all premeditation statutes in murder laws too, since those are as classifiable as “thought crimes.”
“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.”
–Matthew 5:10-11
“And they stoned Stephen,…And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.”
–Acts 8:59,60
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
–Philippians 1:21
“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
“But rejoice, iasnuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
“If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye;…”
–1 Peter 4:12-14
“Oh, NOES! If we can’t keep hold of as much temporal power as possible, we might actually be persecuted somehow! And that would be so wrong!”
–Janet Folger and almost everyone else of the Deranged Fuckwit American Fundegelical Movement
I’m surprised these people bother shrieking about how Democrats, gays, and the ACLU are going to ban the Bible; it’s not like they read it at all. Oh, wait, that part in Leviticus about homosexuals. Though I’m pretty sure even that has to be read to most of them, slowly.
The main thought this triggers for me is: remember how right-wingers are so good at projection?
Not to get all Godwin’s law on this, but it sounds a little like Hitler railing against the Bolshevists. Those who want to be fascists have to accuse their enemies of fascism.
that was just brilliant … you ever get the feeling that what these people think democrats will do to them is the exact same thing they wish they could do to all the gay people and liberals in America?
DeadMan
Such ignorance!! The Fairness Doctrine doesn’t call for every opinion to be balanced by its opposite. it only calls for one political point of view to be balanced by the opposite.
Of course, people like Folger think abortion and homosexuality are political. well, maybe it’s time for them to stop taking their terrors into the political arena.
The separation of church and state have a lot of points that make it a wise policy. Let these people keep their churches out of the business of state and they will have a lot less to whine about.
How can it be even worse than they predicted when she’s busy predicting it?
Christian persecution delusions and fantasies are mental masturbation to these people. Seriously.
They WANT to be imprisoned for their beliefs. The religious persecution thing is part of their apocalyptic end-of-the-world fantasies.
The sooner they get locked up for their ‘faith’, the sooner Jesus comes to take them to heaven. They think blowing up the Middle East will do the same thing.
Thinking Christians will go to jail isn’t a rational assessment of the state of things; It’s wish fulfillment.
“Talk about raging ego trips.”
Talk about paranoid!
I grew up in a crazy religion that obsessed about the Second Coming. There was lots of talk about having to run to the hills and hide because religious persecution, and the torture, and the forced apostasy.
As a young child, that was a terrifying idea. The threat of being separated from one’s parent and being forced to run away and hide, for Jesus of course, was a source of tremendous anxiety for me as a child. We were told those things are real and going to happen.
I think telling those sorts of stories to children was a way of unifying the group, creating an us vs. them mentality; Chosen people vs. the world.
encephalopath nails it - this is all part of the end times scenario beloved of premillenial dispensationalists. They *want* this awfulness to happen, most especially to their fellow Christians who aren’t quite up to spec on their eschatology. Back in the 1980s there were groups showing these wacky end times films complete with truck-mounted mobile guillotines driving around hacking off the heads of True Christians. Lovely stuff.
These are the folks who take Jack Chick tracts seriously.
She left out my favorite scary parts of the story though: where Hillary castrates all the Real Men ™, and has a giant weenie roast, then forces all the Good Christian Women to _eat_ them!
Oooh, gives me the shivers every time!
I thought the networks were part of teh gay agenda and were in league with the beast of Revelation. I can’t keep all this stuff straight in my head, no matter how hard I try.
She how obnoxious it is when the other side talks hysterically about gas chambers and cattle cars?
How interesting that ‘Elmer Gantry’ is on ‘TCM’.
Irony…
“A homeschooling mom was assigned the cell next to me.”
And so continues the right’s blanket fear of the public school system.
Seriously, there may be no better way to expose the right than to quote every comment one of their figures has made about public schools (the left, while also a frequent participant in such schools as is my case, tends not to judge others on their choices.) I especially like when one of them trashes the public school system in general but continues to root for the public school they graduated from.
I know that in the Cleveland area, there’s little reason (note that I didn’t say no reason; everyone has their preferences) to pass up going to school systems like Bay Village, Revere, Beachwood, etc. if you live in those districts.
“She how obnoxious it is when the other side talks hysterically about gas chambers and cattle cars?”
Fruitbat, trying to equate the politics of “left” and “right”, as either equally wrong or equally right is how we got into this state to begin with.
“Bush is the worst president in a century,” is followed by “Well, that Clinton was bad too, and Carter almost gave this country to the commies and wouldn’t stand up for the American Embassy in Iran.”
“Bush has been illegally tapping phones, reading our emails, intercepting our internet traffic, running Guantanamo Bay as an illegal military prison camp, and suspended Habeas Corpus,” is followed by “But Clinton killed Vince Foster and a dozen other people to climb to the top, and Lincoln suspended Habeas during the Civil War.”
“Bush illegally invaded Iraq on false premises, resulting in many American deaths, and he’s getting ready to do the same to Iran,” is followed by “But Clinton sent troops to Mogadishu and Kosovo.”
No wonder people stop listening to evidence, logic, and persuasion. They’ve been taught to believe that all politicians are bad, there is no hope in trying to change things, if Bush is bad (which is hard to disagree with), then Gore would have been worse, etc., etc., etc.
BTW, it’s was that kind of atmosphere in Europe that enabled a certain German WWI war veteran to convince a whole nation that it had been wronged and was appointed by god to conquer its neighbors.
That is what lead to the real gas chambers and cattle cars…
“How interesting that ‘Elmer Gantry’ is on ‘TCM’.”
Watching it for the first time after hearing about it for years…
MikeEss, don’t forget about “Kanye West may have been right about Bush, and what Trent Lott and Strom Thurmond said was wrong…but Robert Byrd was in the KKK 60 years ago,” LOL.
They’ve been taught to believe that all politicians are bad, there is no hope in trying to change things, if Bush is bad (which is hard to disagree with), then Gore would have been worse, etc., etc., etc.
All politicians are pretty much scumbags, which is why the government should be limited as much as possible. I don’t know whether Gore would have been better than Bush, nobody knows what he would have done in power. He did favor a saber-rattling foreign policy until circa 2002, though. One of his big complaints about George Sr. in 1992 was that he “left Saddam Hussein in power”.
You can’t trust human beings with very much power. Even if your guy uses it wisely, theres no reason why the guy that whens the next election will abuse it. Hence, limited, constitutional government.
togolosh is right encephalopath nails it.
Some of Ms. Folger’s letter sounds like my crazy “Christian” uncle.
But really yes let’s sound the alarms about homeschooling coming under attack. Since no lefties homeschool, nooooooo, since homeschooling didn’t first come from the left and then was coopted and corrupted (by means of HSLDA - who LIKES to fomet confrontation between the state/local government and homeschoolers) by the Christian right.
Huckabee is a DOMINIONIST - so of course she’d want him - I blogged about it yesterday.
http://orestia.blogspot.com/2007/11/its-offical-dominionists-for-huckabee.html
Huckabee scares me more than any other Republican in the race with the exception of Giuliani. Hes an economic populist with social and foreign policy positions that makes him look like he crawled out from a neolithic cave.
In other words, hes Joe Lieberman.
^^ I don’t know, Lieberman is MUCH more pro-choice than Huck.
However, Huck is WAY left of Lieberman on foreign policy.
^^ I don’t know, Lieberman is MUCH more pro-choice than Huck.
Thats true. But that makes him Joe Lieberman, except scarier. If women cannot have control over their bodies without interference from the government, then no one is safe from government interference over their bodies.
“If the government is defending our civil rights, our civil rights can never be safe from the government.”
*sigh* I can’t even start with this right now.
In the End Times millennium fantasies, most of the time it isn’t the Left who is doing the persecuting. It’s other “Christians” who have been deceived by the Antichrist for whatever grab bag doctrinal differences you care choose from.
The Elect are pressured by a majority Christian group to conform to a consensus set of beliefs. Folger is getting the story wrong and going off script here which is why I think her tale will only get a wink and a nod from the hard core crazies. It’s a political telling of the story, but she’s deviating from the central Myth here.
It’s a political telling of the story, but she’s deviating from the central Myth here.
Deviating from the central myth isn’t anything new to those poor deluded people who follow the monotheistic Middle Eastern religions.
And we never would have seen the Supreme Court appointments of Charles Schumer and Diane Feinstein
interesting picks. Nevermind how rare it is for senators to join the Supreme Court. I wonder why she would pick those two individuals to serve as her anti-christian boogeymen, especially with all her talk of prison camps and the like…
I thought broadcasting lies WAS the networks’ basic belief.
And Fruitbat, Al Gore would not have lied about WMDs in Iraq or conflated 9/11 and Iraq and started this stupid illegal war b/c his daddy was called wimp for not “finishing” Iraq the first time.
He’d probably have listened to those reports about Osama, since he didn’t disregard everything from the Clinton administration, and 9/11 might not have happened at all.
But even if it had, and he had struck Afghanistan, there’s no reason to suppose he would invade Iraq.
That’s the real boondoggle of this administration. They are oil men and war profiteers who started a war in Iraq b/c they could and because they view our soldiers as “fungible”.
Always look at the comments; they show the wide approval of this lunacy.
I’ve only gone a few posts into the diggs and I’ve seen someone who dared consider the flipside, and a Ron Paul supporter, get rated below the threshold.
Here’s a nice one, good enough for +13 diggs:
‘”Am I supposed to believe that the minority 10-15% are persecuting the rest of the 85%?”
In a word, yes. There is persecution of Christians going on all the time in this country. I know of it first-hand. It’s mostly isolated incidents here and there, but the trend is on the rise as the secular progressives get more militant. Your comments about a theocratic future where children have to read the Bible against their will and freedom of speech is curtailed is laughable when the reality is that children are regularly harassed from participating in Bible study and prayer in public schools and freedom of speech for Christians to stand firm on moral principles is regularly revoked in the name of “tolerance”.
Janet Folger is dead serious, and I’m glad someone isn’t afraid to say what we already know: if we don’t fight for freedom now, we’ll wish we had in the near future.’
Also yet another person playing the “OMG abortion = eugenics” card near the bottom.
I know. Now Chief Justice Dennis Kucinich, on the other hand…
I know. Now Chief Justice Dennis Kucinich, on the other hand…
Compared to Chief Justice Roberts? Sounds OK to me, though I’d like to know where he stands on Kelo
“It’s other “Christians” who have been deceived by the Antichrist for whatever grab bag doctrinal differences you care choose from.”
In the flavor of fundamentalism I was raised in, the traitorous christian faith was always the catholics, who were believed (by the followers of this religion) to be working directly in league with the devil and the antichrist. Other christian religions fared little better, and non-christians were treated as ignorant or worse.
As a child, I was afraid of catholics (as well as other religions) as a result of this propaganda. As an adult, I’ve known and worked with many nice catholics, as well as people from many other faiths. It’s much harder to demonize people when you know them, which is probably why they spent so much effort to keep us separated from the real world.
Of course, at this point I see all of them as deluded…
I was actually just about to email you a link to this. I am actually familiar with a couple people that help support this stuff, and was reading through the website and thought this would be perfect to mock on here… I see I’m too late! I’m glad I can laugh at this because realizing that they are serious makes me want to either do that or cry. Thank you guys for keeping me sane.
You know karpad, it took me until this comment to realize why Schumer and Feinstein were such “nightmare picks” for this nutter. I was just scratching my head until I read your comment thinking “well, geez if the vast left-wing conspiracy managed to get to THAT level of control, surely they could do better then Feinstein and Schumer, couldn’t they? Maybe Justice Barney Frank and Justice Bernie Sanders? Why would two corporate shills like Schumer and Feinstein make the ‘fear list’ instead of a gay guy and a socialist?”
The fact that both Schumer and Feinstein are both Jewish slipped right past me until you noted it. So this is just bog-standard antisemitism, and I’m not really missing anything after all…
MikeEss-
I happened to be listening to this as I read your post
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7vs21ZKrKM
interesting conincidence
And that’s the real purpose behind institutions like Bob Jones U and Patrick Henry and Regents U–keep the kids separate as long as you can, and convince them, once they’re adults, that they’re on a mission from God (not the Blues Brothers kind, unfortunately). I remember an episode of Bill Moyers Journal, I believe, that interviewed graduates from Regents, and they struck me as people who’d never experienced the world outside their peculiar, sheltered version of it.
I think it’s not just persecution fantasies as a matter of mental masturbation but also as a way to displace guilt for all the money they’re making and all the power they’ve amassed. At some level, these wingnuts all remember that their creed, however thoroughly they’ve abandoned it in practice, says that those who amass a fortune in wordly goods and abuse the poor and the vulnerable will spend some serious chunk of eternity burning in hell.
So fantasies about how they’re really downtrodden and oppressed, or even about to go to jail for their beliefs are a way to get rid of some of that cognitive dissonance and think of themselves as Lazarus instead of Dives.
what her persecution letter from the future reminded me of was the turner diaries. not much of a surprise i guess…
FWIW, the fairness doctrine is a pretty poor way of ensuring a representation of diverse views on the scarce resource that is the broadcast spectrum.
Seriously; you must have an opposing view, but the station gets to pick the opposition (Hannity and Colmes, anyone?) That doesn’t even touch the problem that the opposition is varied and often opposed to each other (Republicans and trans-rights activists both oppose Barny Frank’s version of ENDA. Who is “the other side”?)
A far better way to go about things would be to bust up media conglomerates or to award broadcast rights the way NEA grants are awarded or to require materially different content on each station within a broadcast range or…you get the idea.
The Fairness Doctrine sucks from a free speech perspective–though, given that she’s not similarly concerned with the obscenity rules on broadcast, I’m probably ascribing a far greater interest in free speech than Folger actually has.
Why do I get the idea that in Janet Folger’s world “refusing to buy her shitty book” = “nailing her to a cross”.
“Why do I get the idea that in Janet Folger’s world “refusing to buy her shitty book” = “nailing her to a cross”.”
Not only that, but you’re denying her freedom of speech…
NonyNony–actually Barney Frank and Bernie Sanders would be even higher on their hitlist, it being they are also Jewish on top of having the other things.
I love how lgf’ers say that anti-semitism is mostly on the left…
What a demented coward that woman is. Setting aside for a moment just how unlikely it is that fundamentalist Christians will end up in prison camps any time soon, I can’t understand for the life of me why the mere threat of prison should so frighten a “true believer.”
A great many ‘world-changers’ – both good folks and bad – have spent time in prison for their beliefs and actions. They often recognized this as a price they were willing to pay for the privilege of discomfiting the powerful.
And besides that, Folger’s own people – those who would presumably lead this “resistance” – are more apt to cast dissenters in prison than is the, uh, ‘homosexual lobby.’
“To the Resistance”?! Bwahahahahahahahahaha!!!
I can’t even get past that first line. I honestly can’t!
And is she writing this letter on the back of a stamp, because I can’t believe for a second that the thought police would let this pass.
actually Barney Frank and Bernie Sanders would be even higher on their hitlist, it being they are also Jewish on top of having the other things.
yes, but “Frank” and “Sanders” are just names.
Feinstein? Schumer? Those aren’t just ANY names. Even if you’ve never heard of them, you know they’re “Those Sorts.”
She’s writing to an audience: Homophobic, Anti-Semetic, Racist, politically active, but politically illiterate.
“The Base,” as it were.
Or Feinstein and Schumer sound *German*, and therefore sound Fascist to Janet Folger?
I thought Christian fundamentalists like Jews now? You know, John John Hagee and “standing with Israel” and all that. I thought Muslim was the new Jew. I guess thats only if they’re in another country, fighting Muslims.
Well, I don’t have to worry. The extremist Christian fundamentalists will always have it out for me–a brownish atheist.
She’s writing to an audience: Homophobic, Anti-Semetic, Racist, politically active, but politically illiterate.
“The Base,” as it were.
Do you know what “The Base” translates to in Arabic? Al-Qaeda.
They like to say that the loss of ‘religion’ as binders of human actions would lead to the complete downfall of human society as we know it.
They imagine a world stripped of the fear of burning in hell for eternity as removing the fear that keeps ‘god fearing people’ from killing their neighbor and having sex with their daughter, or their son.
The trouble is that stuff goes on. Ironically it happens in the ‘religious’ community.
What would a world without religion look like? I guess you could look at the founders of the Trinity Broadcasting Network who live a life of complete luxury and abuse most of the tax laws and people that work and donate to their shell game. Look at the Bakkers, the Swaggerts, the Hinns the Osteens and the Roberts… My how so many people ‘right with god’ have fallen from what ‘he’ demands for his followers.
‘Religion’, that old tyme religion is about controlling others behavior. It’s about subverting their desires and supplanting their will and drive for one that provides much fear and subjugation. The yoke of farm livestock.
Ironically, given the total ability for the ‘religious’ to be just as ruthless and heinous as those they single out for their wrath, it’s ironic that ‘religion’ probably kept them from being serial killers and serial rapists. It’s ironic that their chosen profession is probably all that they could do in this society, given their mental illness.
In reading the Wiki entry for ‘Elmer Gantry’ I read that the movie and stage show played well in certain areas and was banned in many others and I thought that movie pretty timid, by todays standards.
I wonder what Michael Moore could do with a movie exposing the diseased underbelly of the beast now controlling organized ‘religion’.
I wonder what anyone could do with a killer presentation on the wickedness and absolute inanity of the supporters of ‘religion’ could do to ‘the masses’.
I just this morning read this entry about Thom Hartmann’s new book ‘Cracking the Code’. It sounds like it could be a good book.
We need, as a country, to expose those that seek to control the people, the ‘we the people’. Religion was formed either wholly or in large part as a powerful control construct for the masses and as usual it has been perverted into something that it wasn’t. It has been improved and made more efficient and flashier, harder to ignore. The corporate media players have seen the profit in the construct and back it whole heartedly. Who would of thought that in the 21st century, religious sitcoms would permeate the environment.
We live in scary times. I feel no comfort from ‘religion’, I fear those pulling the strings…
They like to say that the loss of ‘religion’ as binders of human actions would lead to the complete downfall of human society as we know it.
They imagine a world stripped of the fear of burning in hell for eternity as removing the fear that keeps ‘god fearing people’ from killing their neighbor and having sex with their daughter, or their son.
The trouble is that stuff goes on. Ironically it happens in the ‘religious’ community.
What would a world without religion look like? I guess you could look at the founders of the Trinity Broadcasting Network who live a life of complete luxury and abuse most of the tax laws and people that work and donate to their shell game. Look at the Bakkers, the Swaggerts, the Hinns the Osteens and the Roberts… My how so many people ‘right with god’ have fallen from what ‘he’ demands for his followers.
‘Religion’, that old tyme religion is about controlling others behavior. It’s about subverting their desires and supplanting their will and drive for one that provides much fear and subjugation. The yoke of farm livestock.
Ironically, given the total ability for the ‘religious’ to be just as ruthless and heinous as those they single out for their wrath, it’s ironic that ‘religion’ probably kept them from being serial killers and serial rapists. It’s ironic that their chosen profession is probably all that they could do in this society, given their mental illness.
In reading the Wiki entry for ‘Elmer Gantry’ I read that the movie and stage show played well in certain areas and was banned in many others and I thought that movie pretty timid, by todays standards.
I wonder what Michael Moore could do with a movie exposing the diseased underbelly of the beast now controlling organized ‘religion’.
I wonder what anyone could do with a killer presentation on the wickedness and absolute inanity of the supporters of ‘religion’ could do to ‘the masses’.
I just this morning read this entry about Thom Hartmann’s new book ‘Cracking the Code’. It sounds like it could be a good book.
We need, as a country, to expose those that seek to control the people, the ‘we the people’. Religion was formed either wholly or in large part as a powerful control construct for the masses and as usual it has been perverted into something that it wasn’t. It has been improved and made more efficient and flashier, harder to ignore. The corporate media players have seen the profit in the construct and back it whole heartedly. Who would of thought that in the 21st century, religious sitcoms would permeate the environment.
We live in scary times. I feel no comfort from ‘religion’, I fear those pulling the strings…
They like to say that the loss of ‘religion’ as binders of human actions would lead to the complete downfall of human society as we know it.
They imagine a world stripped of the fear of burning in hell for eternity as removing the fear that keeps ‘god fearing people’ from killing their neighbor and having sex with their daughter, or their son.
The trouble is that stuff goes on. Ironically it happens in the ‘religious’ community.
What would a world without religion look like? I guess you could look at the founders of the Trinity Broadcasting Network who live a life of complete luxury and abuse most of the tax laws and people that work and donate to their shell game. Look at the Bakkers, the Swaggerts, the Hinns, the Osteens and the Roberts… My how so many people ‘right with god’ have fallen from what ‘he’ demands for his followers.
‘Religion’, that old tyme religion is about controlling others behavior. It’s about subverting their desires and supplanting their will and drive for one that provides much fear and subjugation. The yoke of farm livestock.
Ironically, given the total ability for the ‘religious’ to be just as ruthless and heinous as those they single out for their wrath, it’s ironic that ‘religion’ probably kept them from being serial killers and serial rapists. It’s ironic that their chosen profession is probably all that they could do in this society, given their mental illness.
In reading the Wiki entry for ‘Elmer Gantry’ I read that the movie and stage show played well in certain areas and was banned in many others and I thought that movie pretty timid, by todays standards.
I wonder what Michael Moore could do with a movie exposing the diseased underbelly of the beast now controlling organized ‘religion’.
I wonder what anyone could do with a killer presentation on the wickedness and absolute inanity of the supporters of ‘religion’ could do to ‘the masses’.
I just this morning read this entry about Thom Hartmann’s new book ‘Cracking the Code’. It sounds like it could be a good book.
We need, as a country, to expose those that seek to control the people, the ‘we the people’. Religion was formed either wholly or in large part as a powerful control construct for the masses and as usual it has been perverted into something that it wasn’t. It has been improved and made more efficient and flashier, harder to ignore. The corporate media players have seen the profit in the construct and back it whole heartedly. Who would of thought that in the 21st century, religious sitcoms would permeate the environment.
We live in scary times. I feel no comfort from ‘religion’, I fear those pulling the strings…
“I thought Christian fundamentalists like Jews now? You know, John John Hagee and “standing with Israel” and all that.”
They like Jews about as much as the Allies liked the Soviets during WWII. It’s merely a relationship of convenience, with no actual respect, which will fall apart as some as the last coincidental shared interests disappear.
The whole “JudeoChristian” terminology is similar. The christians feel the Jews are doomed for following the “wrong” faith, but in the mean time need Jewish political help and need to appear less bigoted.
“I thought Muslim was the new Jew. I guess thats only if they’re in another country, fighting Muslims.”
It is quite interesting how easily one hated group can get swapped out for another.
Jews => Good (now, as long as Israel exists as an American proxy)
Muslims => Bad (unless they’re Saudis, in which case they’re good)
Pakistan => Good (but was bad 7-years ago)
Iran => Bad (but Iran was an ally when the Shah was in power)
France => Good (but just since the election of Sarkozy, bad before that)
Etc…
“…which will fall apart as
someSOON as the…”Not enough caffeine yet…
“There was a tier-one candidate that stood for our goals of life and marriage – that man was Gov. Mike Huckabee. Had we nominated Huckabee to run against Hillary, the stark difference between the two would have brought voters out in droves.”
I wonder who she thinks would/will lose against The Hillary - Rudy!, Fred!, Mitt!, or one of the other Rethuglican authoritarian candidates. And what makes her so sure The Hillary will be the Democratic target? “Faith”, fear, or wishful thinking?…
And Huckabee? Yet another White Southern (Cracker) Governor? I guess the South and flyover country really are all they have left…
wonder who she thinks would/will lose against The Hillary - Rudy!, Fred!, Mitt!, or one of the other Rethuglican authoritarian candidates.
Probably Rudy. Not very many people, on any side of the political spectrum unless they happen to support either candidate, are looking forward to the dreary prospect of Hillary vs. Rudy.
I guess the South and flyover country really are all they have left…
They don’t even have that. I’ve seen polls were Hillary beats Giuliani in Virginia, Kentucky, Florida, Arkansas, and Tennessee.
And in one poll against Romney, she was two points ahead of him–in Alabama. The implosion of the GOP in the last six years at every level of government, in every state, is nothing short of stunning.
“The implosion of the GOP in the last six years at every level of government, in every state, is nothing short of stunning.”
I guess there must be a god, and s/he really DOES work in mysterious ways…
I hope if the Democrats are heading towards a 1964-type landslide (winning everything but the deeps South) they will take it as a repudiation of neocon foreign policy, disgusting social intolerance, and the Republicans seeming inability to control spending.
I really hope they don’t see it instead as an endorsement of higher taxes and new entitlements.
Also, I hope we don’t re-live the early 1990s by having Tipper Gore/Joe Lieberman style hearings on violence in video games, bad words in song lyrics, and V-chips.
No, I want hearings on the criminal actions of the previous administration. Bring it all out into the light, jail EVERYONE involved, and then pass measures that insure the Constitution and the People are never so mistreated again.
“No, I want hearings on the criminal actions of the previous administration. Bring it all out into the light, jail EVERYONE involved, and then pass measures that insure the Constitution and the People are never so mistreated again.”
ABSO-DAMN-LUTELY!!!
A tone must be set so no future president, of any party, will ever casually take this country to war, spy on Americans, authorize torture, or any of the other morally indefensible attacks on freedom, liberty, and the Constitution that have been done or were proposed to be done over the last 40+ years.
The government works for us, not the other way around. Not just for a few connected insiders. All of us…
I could get behind investigations of that nature. Cleaning out the closet is a great idea.
However, I fear that if the next President is Clinton, she will just be way too attracted to those shiny new tools Bush put in place to investigate their abuses and dismantle them.
“However, I fear that if the next President is Clinton, she will just be way too attracted to those shiny new tools Bush put in place to investigate their abuses and dismantle them.”
You may be right (Senator Clinton is not necessarily my pick of the bunch either), but the critical issue here is holding the president to congressional accountability. The president can’t be allowed to escape accountability for his/her actions, any more than any other politician.
The only reason Cheney/Bush has/have gotten away with so much outrageous stuff is because of a compliant (worthless/useless/ineffectual/embarrassingly weak, etc.) congress.
This turned the whole idea of “checks and balances” completely upside-down…
The only reason Cheney/Bush has/have gotten away with so much outrageous stuff is because of a compliant (worthless/useless/ineffectual/embarrassingly weak, etc.) congress.
This turned the whole idea of “checks and balances” completely upside-down…
That has been a worrying trend since World War II. Weak, compliant Congress, Imperial Presidency. It abated a little bit after Nixon, but since 9/11 its surged very, very far towards the other direction. Congress is the most open branch of government, as much power as practical should be put in its hands. The Executive is by its very nature secretive, only powers absolutely essential to be in the hands of one person should be put there.
BTW, since this is a femminist site do you think that Clinton will be more hawkish because of hee gender? You know, fears people will think shes “weak” because shes a woman, therefore she will prove how “tough” she is by favoring a strong executive and bombing other countries.
No, Atomicfruitbat, they are the new boogeyman in this country and the “brown horde” invading Europe (forgetting of course Europe’s issues with it’s Muslim population have to do with keeping them out of citizenship then inclusion. America doesn’t and probably won’t see the same problems because.) but still they go after Muslims here . . . she just forgot to include them, too flustered being in the clink I would think.
These right-wingers have no respect for the rule of law. I don’t think they really understand what it is or why we have it.
To these folks, the world is black v. white, good v. evil. They see the world as being ruled by the powerful, not controlled by the law.
Therefore, they do not see an ideal Supreme Court as being the nine brightest legal minds in the land. They see it as a complicated “super legislature” that must approve any law that is passed. Therefore, they must get a majority on the court who “thinks their way” and damn the consequences. The constitution is nothing more than a series of hard to change laws.
In other words, they have no problem with rewriting (or ignoring) the constitution or the law if they are in power. Therefore, they see us doing likewise. Since they would gladly do away with the establishment clause if they could, they believe that we would gladly do away with the free exercise clause.
Because they do not understand tolerance, they assume that we must be as intolerant as they are.
I think this was the failure of the Ford pardon of Nixon. I have heard many on both sides of the aisle says that it was best for the nation, allowing it to heal. I think Pelosi feels this way.
But my feeling is that it sent the message to Rove and Cheney, et. al. that the unitary executive was still a viable construct and that the problem with the Nixon white house is that they weren’t professional enough in their criminal activites and didn’t keep enough from the house and senate, they needed to be more secretive.
A message needed be sent then and it MUST be sent now.
“BTW, since this is a femminist site do you think that Clinton will be more hawkish because of hee gender? You know, fears people will think shes “weak” because shes a woman, therefore she will prove how “tough” she is by favoring a strong executive and bombing other countries.”
In “normal” circumstances, Clinton being hawkish would be a no-brainer. See Thatcher, Margaret and her handling of the Falklands dustup. A tough response from Thatcher had no downside - as long as Argentina was spanked.
With the Iraq situation muddying thing up, it’s much less obvious how she would react. And don’t forget the anti-Clinton Rechwing Machine that will be cranking out the muck non-stop should she be elected.
The reaction of ANY president to the post-Cheney/Bush power grab is up in the air. I’m afraid we’re going to have to depend on the next (few) president’s basic sense of morality and justice to hold things in check until the balance of power can be readjusted.
If that person or persons are unable to control their human greed and the temptation to wield power over their “enemies”, we’re in for a rough time…
(We desperately need a Frodo Baggins to come along and take this newly minted presidential “ring of power” and cast it into Mt. Doom to rid the presidency of this curse of power. Sadly, stout-hearted hobbits seem few and far between…)
I think this was the failure of the Ford pardon of Nixon. I have heard many on both sides of the aisle says that it was best for the nation, allowing it to heal.
I prefer the Roman method of “healing”. During the republic, they had a law stating that any office holder convicted of being a tyrant faced summary execution after removal from office.
“However, I fear that if the next President is Clinton, she will just be way too attracted to those shiny new tools Bush put in place to investigate their abuses and dismantle them.”
You may be right (Senator Clinton is not necessarily my pick of the bunch either),
One of my problems (among many) is that she has essentially been chosen for us. The right wing made noises about her being a candidate for president right after she was elected to the senate (and they may have made noises about it before I can’t remember). . . they assumed right then and there she’s be the Democratic nominee for either the 2004 or 2008 election … it just feels so staged for me that it is one of the things I cannot get past.
Thank you, Atomic Fruitbat, for telling the truth about a Huckabee Administration. I’ve been talking about the remarks that Huck made over at my blog for quite some time now. Rest assured, if Huckabee is elected as president, women will be banned from the public eye here in the USA. A vote for Huckabee is essentially a vote for an American Taliban state.
“…it just feels so staged for me that it is one of the things I cannot get past.”
Boy do I know what you mean. I feel like they’ve been preparing the next stage of the American rollercoaster ride for a very long time and it ain’t gonna be fun…
Atomicfruitbat wrote
I do, and I said so in a letter to her over her ill considerred, stupid, I gotta look tough cause everyone thinks I’m weak cuz I’m a girl, vote on the Kyle Lieberman ammendment.
That was only under times of peace and stability, under times of crisis Romans accepted tyrantical rule - which was not considered a bad thing.
Jovan1984 - do you still have them to link to?
Mike: “You may be right (Senator Clinton is not necessarily my pick of the bunch either), but the critical issue here is holding the president to congressional accountability. The president can’t be allowed to escape accountability for his/her actions, any more than any other politician.
The only reason Cheney/Bush has/have gotten away with so much outrageous stuff is because of a compliant (worthless/useless/ineffectual/embarrassingly weak, etc.) congress.
Fact is that the population in this country is far too compliant. I would love to participate, help to organize and be involved in wide scale national protests that continue until whoever is president next puts on hearings as described to bring the parties accountable out in the open.
It is directly contrary to the citizen’s interests to go to the polls, pull the lever, then go home and sit in front of the tube hoping for miracles. Our complacency and self absorption allowed this mess, its a habit we Americans need desperately to break.
Fact is that the population in this country is far too compliant. I would love to participate, help to organize and be involved in wide scale national protests that continue until whoever is president next puts on hearings as described to bring the parties accountable out in the open.
There have been many anti-war protests. Problem is, they get hijacked by Communist-front organizations (ANSWER) and get turned into anti-capitalism, anti-Jew, pro-Mumia, pro-Castro rallies. For obvious reasons I don’t feel comfortable participating in them, and neither do a lot of other anti-war people who aren’t on the left.
Sorry for the three-peat earlier… It wouldn’t post, or at least didn’t seem to work.
Sorry…
A tone must be set so no future president, of any party, will ever casually take this country to war, spy on Americans, authorize torture, or any of the other morally indefensible attacks on freedom, liberty, and the Constitution that have been done or were proposed to be done over the last 40+ years.
The government works for us, not the other way around. Not just for a few connected insiders. All of us…
-MikeEss
HA!! What makes you so sure the democrats will be ANY different then the republicans, outside of raising taxes and to try to balance the budget? And perhaps putting more left leaning Judges in the federal court systems?
And who SAYS that democrats are right? Hmmm? Since their election to majorities in the house and a small majority in the senate, they haven’t changed anything. And congress has a lower approval rating then President Bush.
Hillary will be our next president (no I don’t want her to be president… ), and she will be intoxicated with the power. Maybe she will attack Iran. Or re-attack bosnia and serbia, Because they had it coming (j/k)
There have been many anti-war protests. Problem is, they get hijacked by Communist-front organizations (ANSWER) and get turned into anti-capitalism, anti-Jew, pro-Mumia, pro-Castro rallies. For obvious reasons I don’t feel comfortable participating in them, and neither do a lot of other anti-war people who aren’t on the left.
And even when they don’t get hijacked like that, they get little if any news coverage by the main news organs of television or newsprint.
Lee, I’m pretty sure I said “…no future president, of any party…”.
This is not a partisan issue…
“HA!! What makes you so sure the democrats will be ANY different then the republicans, outside of raising taxes and to try to balance the budget?”
If the current Democratic majority in Congress is any indication, things won’t be much different. Which, if that happens, will be a very important missed opportunity.
OTOH, many Americans were absolutely convinced that anybody was going to be an improvement over Bill Clinton. It just turned out that a lot of Americans didn’t have imaginations large enough and outrageous enough to see what Bush/Cheney actually did to us coming in 2000…
Don’t count your disastrous presidencies until they’ve actually materialized and metastasized…
Don’t count your disastrous presidencies until they’ve actually materialized and metastasized…
yea, I know what you’re saying, but I don’t really care who becomes president. Do they wield power like we think they are? Or are they puppets on a string? I haven’t decided yet..
I don’t know. I am not that smart.
I do think Hillary will be president. And believe it or not, I wish her well. I hope history will show her to be an excellent president. I hope she leads through the Constitution, instead of over it.
You do have a point about President Bush. His presidency has turned into a nightmare. Imagine what history will say about him. Although, if Iraq turns out good in the next year or so, Bush will be looked upon kindly by history.
Gah . . I . . . can . . . not . . . resist. . . .
The only time history has looked “kindly” on someone who allowed ethnic cleansing/mass murder on an unimaginable scale to happen was Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler). And that is only because:
1. he had so many people impaled that the shear horror of what he could do to his own people stopped the invading Muslim army and they turned for home - so Vlad got his “turned out good”
2. Only the Romanian and parnoid right wing Christians see him as and write of him as a hero. To everyone else he was a cold hearted Mofo, responsible for much misery and blood shed and who while making his own escape left his young wife to the mercy of an invading army.
History will not look kindly on Bush or his presendency, and his and his administration’s countless blunders in Iraq and Afghanistan, the graft and greed his administration allowed and supported to rape Iraq, and the economic mess made here at home will override any bump he may get from “Iraq turning out okay.”
I have a comment in moderation
I thought Christian fundamentalists like Jews now? You know, John John Hagee and “standing with Israel” and all that.
They support Israel, because the existance of the jewish state is necessary for their dispensationalist beliefs about what happens in the end of days. Basically “So Jesus knows where they are for when he wants to start armageddon.”
Not REALLY support, is it?
Or Feinstein and Schumer sound *German*, and therefore sound Fascist to Janet Folger?
Giving her wayyyy too much credit. and last I checked (which was actually about a month ago, talking Geneology with my Great Uncle, who’s last name is Schumer) Schumer is actually a yiddish name, as is -stein almost without exception.
It’s not a German thing. It’s a Jewish thing, take it to the bank.
Yes, I do, clytemnestra.
Here are the links:
Huckabee spreads same lies in Situation Room
Mike Huckabee is an Obvious Woman-Hater
I missed the most exciting things about Janet’s “letter”; the part where she’s forced to divorce her husband, get an abortion, and marry a lesbian–not necessarily in that order. I guess the Evil Left censored that part.
Let me play “devil’s advocate”, as it were….
Let’s say Hillary does get elected. (I see this as a distinct possibility after last night.) Now, for years, people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and dozens of right-wing commentators and Christian authors/commentators have bashed her and her husband. They’ve called both Clintons everything from “philandering scumbag” to “the Antichrist Herself”.
Now, think of this from a human point of view: If you suddenly gained the power to get back at your enemies (in this case, tools put there by Bush within the last 6 years), wouldn’t you be VERY tempted to do so? As much as she says “what she stands for” in public, we can’t see into her mind, into her thoughts. Who can say what she’s really thinking?
Even though they won’t say so in a public forum, there are many out there who really do believe that she will enact legislations that persecute right-wingers and/or Christians, simply because of all the bashing they’ve done against both her and Bill.
As they say, “Payback is a b*tch”…..
Let me play “devil’s advocate”, as it were….
Let’s say Hillary does get elected. (I see this as a distinct possibility after last night.) Now, for years, people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and dozens of right-wing commentators and Christian authors/commentators have bashed her and her husband. They’ve called both Clintons everything from “philandering scumbag” to “the Antichrist Herself”.
Now, think of this from a human point of view: If you suddenly gained the power to get back at your enemies (in this case, tools put there by Bush within the last 6 years), wouldn’t you be VERY tempted to do so? As much as she says “what she stands for” in public, we can’t see into her mind, into her thoughts. Who can say what she’s really thinking?
Even though they won’t say so in a public forum, there are many out there who really do believe that she will enact legislations that persecute right-wingers and/or Christians, simply because of all the bashing they’ve done against both her and Bill.
As they say, “Payback is a b*tch”…..