Keith Ellison, I Salute You November 30, 2006
Posted by wes285 in Politics, Religion.add a comment
First read this article by Dennis Prager from TownHall.com. It’s not very long and should take you about five minutes.
Uh, did we forget that one of the principles that America was built on was religious FREEDOM? Not freedom to be whatever denomination of Christianity you want to be. Freedom to be whatever religion you want to be. This Congressman happens to be Muslim. If he was sworn in on the bible, which means little to him, the swearing in would mean nothing. By swearing in on the Koran, the ceremony actual holds some meaning because Mr. Ellison is swearing in on the book that he believes in.
Let me take a few direct quotes from this letter sent by this ignoramus named Dennis Prager (I’ll refrain from stronger language, since this is family television):
“the act undermines American civilization. “
Actually, I can’t think of anything more American than a Congressman being proud of his religion.
“America is interested in only one book, the Bible.”
Um sorry Mr. Prager, America is interested in a lot more than just the Bible. I’m pretty sure more than half of America will never open a Bible.
“Jews elected to public office have taken their oath on the Bible, even though they do not believe in the New Testament,”
I’m almost certain a Jewish Congressman has never requested to be sworn in on the Torah. If they do request to, they should be allowed to. Furthermore, just because it has never happened, doesn’t make it wrong. Logical fallacy Mr. Prager. Obviously you weren’t paying attention in English 101.
“But these naive people do not appreciate that America will not change the attitude of a single American-hating Muslim by allowing Ellison to substitute the Koran for the Bible. In fact, the opposite is more likely: Ellison’s doing so will embolden Islamic extremists and make new ones, as Islamists, rightly or wrongly, see the first sign of the realization of their greatest goal — the Islamicization of America.”
Pardon my French, but that’s bullshit. You, Mr. Prager, are naive to think that Islamist extremists give a damn about Keith Ellison. What creates more Islamist extremists is what the extremists perceive as America meddling in their affairs. Most Muslims in the Middle East will probably never even here of Keith Ellison. They don’t care who Keith Ellison is. Islamist extremists aren’t interested in changing America, they’re interested in wiping America off the map.
This America, not Christiamerica. Yes, we’re built on Judeo-Christian values. But I’m pretty sure somewhere, those values teach you to be accepting of other people, even if they don’t have the same religion as you.
Made in America November 28, 2006
Posted by wes285 in Blogging, Facebook, Observations, Television.2 comments
Useless Fact: This year I am thankful for midterm elections and general Republican mookishness
Livejournal was pissing me off, so I switched to WordPress, which Andy assured me is far superior
imSOcool 285: and now livejournal is acting gay
yolopey: shocking
imSOcool 285: technology sucks
yolopey: technology designed for 13 year old emo girls sucks
yolopey: wordpress.com is very good
The color pattern kinda sucks, but you’ll have to bear with me while I tinker around with it.
It’s been a month and a day since I’ve posted anything at all. Yes, I have been neglecting this thing. I don’t really have a valid excuse. Can’t say I was busy cos I’m only taking 12 credits and I do most of my posting at 2am when I’m never doing work anyway. Good at Drinking, Bad at Life claims that it’s because single bloggers are better bloggers. At any rate, the old one is still up and you can read any previous posts here.
Apparently, facebook is now the end all and be all of anything related to a person, especially relationship status. Technology is such an antisocial bitch. The more technologically advanced we get, the less face to face interaction we have with actual people. Face-to-face conversation, telephone, e-mail, blogs, facebook. Notice the steady decrease in real time human interaction. Disgusting. But I digress…
So apparently it was big news that I now have a girlfriend. How it spread like wildfire I’m not sure, because I think I told five people. Okay, I take that back. That whole grapevine thing, it generally works very well. So anyway, I’ve been getting these irate IMs along the lines of “You have a girlfriend? I didn’t know that. Why didn’t you tell me?” Because it’s an absolute waste of breath when I can tell five people and let the grapevine do its job. Plus, I think it’s a bit absurd to go screaming to everyone “I’m in a relationship wooohoooo me.” I mean, it isn’t like I’m getting married or anything like that. But that wasn’t what really bothered me. “How come you’re not ‘in a relationship’ on facebook. No one is going to know about it until you’re facebook official.” WHAT? First of all, since when did facebook determine the officialness of a relationship? I’m pretty sure that should be left up to the DTR conversation. And second, did you ever consider that fact that maybe I, or any other guy for that matter, don’t want the whole world to know because I’m embarrassed by the gigantic warts my girlfriend has on her face? Gosh, how insensitive.
Anyway, now that I do have a girlfriend, I find myself watching a disturbing amount of Sex and the City, HGTV, and the Style Channel. I’m not sure how I feel about that yet. So one show that we happen to watch a lot is Made in America on the Travel Channel. Okay, we don’t watch that together, but I needed a segue. Anyway, in Made in America, the mailman from Cheers runs around the country seeing how pieces of Americana are made, like Crayola crayons, chicken noodle soup, and Blackhawk helicopters. This got me thinking. Why haven’t they done an episode on how cigarettes are made? Yeah, yeah, yeah, there’s that whole it’s bad for your health thing. But, really, other than the flag, mom, Hulk Hogan, and apple pie, there is nothing more American than the good old cancer stick. Joe Camel. The Marlboro Man. Think about it, the cigarette is so ubiquitous in America. For better or for worse, they’re inescapable. There is something alluring about having a cigarette (one cigarette, not two packs a day, that’s just excessive). Just look at every great action movie. There is always that scene where the main character is contemplating what to do next, pause, puff, continue thinking, AHA, time to save the world. Take away the cigarette and it just isn’t the same. The timing of the whole thing gets thrown off. John McClane without cigarettes in the Die Hard trilogies just is not the same man. If you still don’t believe me, go watch Thank You For Smoking, and you’ll realize just how ubiquitous the cigarette is.
