Motley Moose – Archive

Once again John Stewart proves something that ever sane Al Giordano and our own sage Shaun Appleby have said:

Cable TV political shows on Comedy Central – The Daily Show and The Colbert report – have become far more relevant to the national political discourse than any host on MSNBC or even Fox, which has gone down the Glenn Beck rabbit hole in a manner that only increases the dysfunction inside the GOP.

Al Giordano – A Primer on the 2010 US House and Senate Elections The Field 1 Sep 10

Or as I said, in full Bardic emulation mode, perhaps we’ve reached that strange decadent point in our politics “when sooth sayers sound like fools, and only fools speak the truth.”  

The obscene and inflammatory 9/11 commemoration promised by the ridiculous moustachioed demagogue Terry Jones (no, not the Monty Python guy) richly deserves the most withering satire your political wits are capable of.

I can’t view or embed Comedy Central videos in the UK (help Moosefather!), so hat tip for Bruinkid on DKOS for the transcript below the break….

It never ceases to frustrate me how ignorant so many of my fellow Americans are about the Muslim faith (or, really, about any faith beyond Christianity). There are over a BILLION Muslims on this silly planet of ours, and merely a fraction of a fraction of them are ‘terrorists’. Yet, the entire faith gets slapped with the broad brush whenever a follower of Muhammad wreaks havoc. Did the atrocities committed in Bosnia by Christians against Muslims (genocide!) represent all Christians? Does the attempt by Christian leaders in Uganda (with the possible backing of Christian leaders here in the States) to make being HIV positive and homosexual punishable by death represent all Christians? IMO, no single group of followers throughout history have been more ‘terrorizing’ than Christians; yet, for some reason, seldom do you hear Americans lashing out at the followers of Christ for the evils committed by a tiny fraction of their brethren. In both cases the blame is misplaced. It is evidence of ignorance and fear of the unknown and unfamiliar…of the need to blame ‘other’ and ‘different’ for the evils and ills of the world. And it has been used to manipulate the majority against the minority in countless ways since the beginning of time. It is such fear and hatred and ignorance that are to blame for terrorism, not any particular faith (or its followers).

I have noticed several conversations and comments about Muslims in recent threads on the Moose. While visiting family for Thanksgiving, something I read here reminded me of an email exchange from a few years back. A friend received a hateful forward in a mass email blast, and she asked me to help her pen a response to ‘reply to all’…. You will find the result below the fold.

It never ceases to frustrate me how ignorant so many of my fellow Americans are about the Muslim faith (or, really, about any faith beyond Christianity). There are over a BILLION Muslims on this silly planet of ours, and merely a fraction of a fraction of them are ‘terrorists’. Yet, the entire faith gets slapped with the broad brush whenever a follower of Muhammad wreaks havoc. Did the atrocities committed in Bosnia by Christians against Muslims….the attempted genocide of an entire people…represent all Christians? IMO, no single group of followers throughout history have been more ‘terrorizing’ than Christians; yet, for some reason, seldom do you hear Americans lashing out at the followers of Christ for the evils committed by a tiny fraction of their brethren. In both cases the blame is misplaced. It is evidence of ignorance and fear of the unknown and unfamiliar…of the need to blame ‘other’ and ‘different’ for the evils and ills of the world. And it has been used to manipulate the majority against the minority in countless ways since the beginning of time. It is such fear and hatred and ignorance that are to blame for terrorism, not any particular faith (or its followers).

I have noticed several conversations and comments about Muslims in recent threads on the Moose. While visiting family for Thanksgiving, something I read here reminded me of an email exchange from a few years back. A friend received a hateful forward in a mass email blast, and she asked me to help her pen a response to ‘reply to all’…. You will find the result below the fold.