So my disclaimer before posting what I'm about to post is this: For the next two months the extent to which I have been a raging liberal up to this point is going to multiply times one thousand until this election. Those who take issue with this can feel free to contact me directly with any concerns or disagreements this might spark.
I received this email forward in my email today(who it came from does not matter):
This is a matter of opinion and opinions are like (well you
know) everybody has one.My personal opinion? I agree. If
after reading this Email you disagree, Please, no need to
reply back to me. Your opinion is yours and that's fine,
just delete it.
So my question is, it is fine to forward political "opinions" of one's own as long as those opinions don't have to be challenged, defended with facts or called into question?
*******************
A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality
that they imagine that America can suffer defeat without any
inconvenience to themselves.Pause a moment, reflect
back.These events are actual events from history. They
really happened!!! Do you remember?1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was
shot and killed by a Muslim male extremist.2. In 1972 at the
Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by
Muslim male extremists.3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran
was taken over by Muslim male extremists.4. During the
1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon
by Muslim male extremists.5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks
in Beirut was blown up by Muslim male extremists.6. In 1985
the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old
American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in
his wheelchair by Muslim male extremists.7. In 1985 TWA
flight 847 was hijacked at Athens and a US Navy diver trying
to rescue passengers was murdered by Muslim male extremists.
(remember the pilot of this flight was from Richmond, MO)
8. In 1988 , Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by Muslim male
extremists.9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the
first time by Muslim male extremists.10. In 1998, the US
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslim male
extremists.11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two
were used as missiles to take down the World Trade Centers
and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon
and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers.
Thousands of people were killed by Muslim male
extremists.12. In 2002 the United States fought a war in
Afghanistan against Muslim male extremists.13. In 2002
reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by-- you
guessed it-- Muslim male extremists.No, I really don't
see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you? So, to
ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly
fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners
will no longer be allowed to profile certain people...
Absolutely No Profiling.They must conduct random searches of
80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper
identification, secret agents who are members of the
President's security detail, 85-year old Congressmen
with metal hips, and Medal of Hon or winner and former
Governor Joe Foss but leave Muslim Males alone lest they be
guilty of profiling.According to The Book of Revelations:The
Anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40's, of MUSLIM
descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive
language, and have a MASSIVE Christlike appeal.. ..the
prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will
promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power,
he will destroy everything.And Now: For the award winning
Act of Stupidity Of all times the People of America want to
elect, to the most Powerful position on the face of the
Planet -- The Presidency of the United states of America ..
A Male of Muslim descent who is the most extremely liberal
Senator in Congress (in other words an extremist) and in his
40's.Have the American People completely lost their
Minds, or just their Power of Reason ???I'm sorry but I
refuse to take a chance on the 'unknown' candidate
Obama...Let's send this to as many people as we can so
that the Gloria Aldreds and other stupid attorneys along
with Federal Justices that want to thwart common sense, feel
ashamed of themselves -- if they have any such sense.As the
writer of the award winning story 'Forest Gump' so
aptly put it,'Stupid Is As Stupid Does'Each
opportunity that you have to send it to a friend or media
outlet..do it! Or again. . . just delete if you
disagree.*
**********************
WTF?
In all honesty, it's really hard for me to believe that anyone in the United States could even remotely read this email and consider it to be in keeping with email's own advocating of retaining "common sense" let alone having any intelligence WHATSOEVER. Have we honestly thrown away any focus or importance on where each candidate stands on any actual issue? Have we honestly taken to spreading the irrational fear of some fundamentalist's idea of what the bible says or purportedly foretells? Are we that unsure of our own positions on the issues that the only outlet is to attack a person's national origin or religion?
Honestly, this email forward scares me more than any political candidate ever could. The stupidity by which some Americans can go throughout their lives not really researching, studying, listening to, or engaging in intelligence discourse about political issues is profound.
Whatever your political bent may be, I personally respect intelligence and communication above all. Stupidity and bigotry that create the kind of fear spread by this email is no better than the "perils" against which the email rages.
Monday, September 08, 2008
Fear 101
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6 comments:
I don't much care for the notion of forwarding deliberately inflammatory political opinion while shielding yourself from the expression of an opposing view. Part of freedom of speech is opening yourself up for debate.
Part of me--a part that's more self-satisfied than I'd like to admit--thinks some of the folks that forward political messages to you fear that we'll bring the debate to a level at which they can't compete. But the rest of me thinks it's probably less cowardly and insidious than that. I imagine that most people see no need or reason to defend, explain, or intellectualize their beliefs. And truly, there IS no need to defend, explain, or intellectualize one's beliefs. Once you've allowed them to leave your property or the voting booth, however, it seems to me you've invited scrutiny, and that rescinding that invitation with cowardly disclaimers somewhere half past petty.
Islam is between 1200 and 1300 years old. When Christianity was that age, the Catholics were slaughtering Cathars in an all-out military campaign. Fearing extremism makes sense; fearing someone of "Muslim descent" (word to the wise: Islam is a belief system, not an ethnicity) purely on the basis of that descent is bigotry, pure and simple.
If Obama is an "extremist" (frankly, I don't find him liberal enough on social issues, though I admit to having a libertarian streak on some fiscal matters), then one assumes the voters will see that. Personally, I think Palin's an extremist, but extremity can really only measure the distance from where you are.
. . . and that rescinding that invitation with cowardly disclaimers somewhere half past petty.
. . . should read . . .
. . . and that rescinding that invitation with cowardly disclaimers IS somewhere half past petty.
Other than that, I let it stand.
I'm sorry, but I can't help but laugh at this email. Wowsers.
1) The book of revelations has the word "muslim" in it? Really? Where?
Also, this Christ-like figure...By my reading of those scriptures, I understood it to mean that it'd be someone who used to the word of Christ and duped the people into creating Armageddon.
You ask me, that sounds a lot more like the Pentecostals (a group looking to create Armageddon on earth) than it does the majority of those who identify as Muslim.
2) During WWII, 5,000,000 jews were killed by Hitler, an extreme Christian white male.
- In 1995, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK was blown up, hundreds of people were killed, including countless innocent children, in an act conducted by two extreme Christian white males.
- During the 1400s, thousands of people were tortured, maimed and executed in the name of religious purity by a man named Torquemada an extreme Christian white male.
- Several times in history, armies would gather and head into what is now known as the Middle East, in an attempt to reclaim the Holy Lands. During these "Holy Crusades" massive genocide was enacted on the local peoples. These movements were coordinated by extreme Christian white males.
- More recently, under the guise of fighting communism, an entire country's population were named "gooks," a group of people who were then visited by napalm bombing, village burning, and child massacring; all under the policy created by an extreme Christian white male.
- Even more recently, intelligence was forged, weapons were fabricated, platoons were deployed, women were raped, people were killed, our own soldiers were destroyed, the enemies' extreme factions were motivated, lands were plundered, civilization abandoned for many in infrastructures that previously functioned well, hospitals were bombed, domestic natural disasters were ignored, civil liberties were destroyed all under the auspices of attempting to bring "democracy and God" to a populace who didn't want either; all because of the beliefs of a gullible, manipulatable extreme Christian white male.
Frankly, if this extreme faction of the world doesn't deserve their own profiling, I don't see why anyone else should.
Funny tidbit: I underestimate the age of Islam, but only by a couple hundred years. The verses of the Qur'an were "revealed" to Muhammad--ostensibly by way of Gabriel--between 610 and 632 A.D.
So Islam is almost 1400 years old. The Cathars were well dead by that time; the Catholic Church was taking a breather between the Crusades and the forthcoming Spanish Inquisition.
My mistake. ;^)
Nonetheless, it seems to me unlikely that the Book of Revelations had much to say about Islam 500 years or so before it even existed. I suppose there might be a reference to the "sons of Ishmael" or some such esoterica. It'd be interesting to look up.
In any case . . . eek.
"In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by Muslim male extremists."
And when the marines pulled out, Christian extremists went into the Palestinian camps, where they proceeded to in one evening massacre (by conservative estimates) 2500 palestinian civilians.
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