It should be a rule of the internet...

...if it isn't already that you never mess with Anonymous. For those of you not too hip on the intertubez, just keep on surfing LOL

I'm amused that they've issued a warning to the Westboro Baptist Church, props to Joe My God, I haven't read anything this funny in a while. Indeed, I haven't read much of anything in a while, because it merely infuriates me and 'teh stupid' just keeps on rolling whether I write about it or not.

I'm hoping they ignore Anonymous like I think they will, and hilarity ensues.

When Books Burn...

I'm sure ya'll have heard about the certifiable (as in, insane) pastor in Florida that is planning on burning Korans on 9/11.

A fine example of asshattery

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The government turned up the pressure Tuesday on the head of a small Florida church who plans to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11, warning him that doing so could endanger U.S. troops and Americans everywhere.

But the Rev. Terry Jones insisted he would go ahead with his plans, despite criticism from the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, the White House and the State Department, as well as a host of religious leaders.

Jones, who is known for posting signs proclaiming that Islam is the devil's religion, says the Constitution gives him the right to publicly set fire to the book that Muslims consider the word of God...

First of all, hiding behind the mantra that "the Constitution lets me do it" is a cowardly act. It's in some ways like blaming the devil because you cheated on your spouse. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. One could go and call random black people on the street terrible names, it's a constitutionally protected right after all, but there are consequences. They'd probably get the shit beat out of them, and would anyone be surprised? I think not. So Mr. Asshat here can burn the Koran and piss off a bunch of fundamentalist Muslims. The only problem is, it won't be him getting the beating. It will be some poor bloke, probably some 19 year old kid who enlisted in the military half a world away from home who gets the shit beat out of him because Mr. Asshat is well, an asshat.

We should be outraged that he burns any book at all. Or that anyone burns any book, be it a Bible or Harry Potter. Why you ask? Because this type of sentiment leads to hatred of other human beings. First they burn books, next they burn people. It's happened before, plenty of times. If we're not careful, it can and will happen again. Most of the people of Nazi Germany probably didn't realize the path their country was headed down in 1933 when they vilified Jews and burned Torahs and Synagogues. What path are we on? Vilifying Muslims and burning Korans? The next step will be genocide if no one puts a stop to this crap.

A Good Ol' Fashioned Book Burning

I had read about the wackos in Canton, North Carolina who are going to have a book burning on Halloween night the other day. Ah, but this isn't just any ol' book burning where they burn Harry Potter or something. No, they're going to burn Bibles and other Christian writings instead.

I didn't get around to writing about it until now. Part of this is probably because it came as no surprise to me. I grew up not far from where these people are. Do not for a moment think that this is some kind of minority in a microcosm of Christianity in this area. Western North Carolina is full of these types, so keep this in mind when the media is sure to say that their church has "only" fourteen members. I have met a good many who believe exactly what they do. They believe the KJV of the Bible is the only version acceptable. If you try to have a rational conversation with them and discuss the history of the Bible, how it came to be, how it was translated, their response will be "that's the devil talking." I'm not making this shit up, I have actually had people say that very line to me. Speaking of a lack of understanding about biblical scholarship, I have come across people who have told me point blank that the Bible was written by Jesus himself. Again, you can't reason with these people, or have a rational conversation. If you don't agree with them, it's all Satan's fault.

Apparently, everyone is very interested in these people, because their site has evidently exceeded it's bandwidth and is down. Yay for the wayback machine. It was stated on their main page:

We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and it is our final authority in all matters. We believe in teaching “no other doctrine”, like Paul told Timothy, and that is our stand. We stand on God’s Word and not man ideas or “scholarship.” We make no apology for our stand. We are an old fashion Independent Fundamental Baptist Church.

In other words, they don't like education or studying. Their followers are to follow, not question, and do so blindly. Apparently they mock the god that they believe gave them a brain complete with the capacity for critical thinking skills. They don't trust their own brain, or anything that can be learned from "scholarship", but rather put their trust in the often incoherent writings of semi-nomadic pastoralists who thought that the earth was flat and that the stars were permanently pasted into the night sky.

I find book burnings, of any book, whether I agree with it or not, abhorrent. These people are ignorant, so much so, that they have no idea that when they say they're going to burn books, that the first thing most educated people think is "like the Nazis". Well, except for me, but then I'm weird. I automatically think of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Idiots.


The picture at the beginning of this entry is of the Dominicans tossing Catholic and Cathar books into a fire. Of course the Catholic ones floated away from the flames while the Cathar ones were consumed. 15th century painting by Pedro Berruguete after a legend from the 13th century. The picture on the left is of the Nazis burning books.

The Inquisition was a Good Thing

I hadn't heard about the Nazi-wanna-be group "Youth for Western Civilization" until I heard about Tom Tancredo getting run out of UNC-CH by a broken window, that I wrote about yesterday. The founder of the chapter of that group at UNC-CH, Riley Matheson, gave an interview before that whole fiasco, going on about the views and goals of the group. The one thing that struck me as absurd above all the others, of course I love medieval history, so it might just be me, was his comments about the Inquisition.

At the same time, YWC promotes a celebration of western European culture. On the YWC Web site and Facebook group, there are numerous historical references to European culture. I was wondering how that plays into your role at UNC.

"The problem with university students and faculty is that there is basically, in our opinion, a deep mistrust and hatred of Western heritage. We're constantly focusing on the sins of our past. It's not to say they weren't sins. It's just to say that we need to revitalize our culture and not constantly talk about mistakes we might have made. We've long since made up for the sins we might have committed."

Do you mean slavery and the Inquisition?

"I can definitely say that slavery's one of the sins. When it comes to things like the Inquisition, I'd rather not comment—I don't want to condemn it. That's a personal opinion, and not really a club opinion."

You have got to be kidding me. You don't want to condemn the torture and murder of hundreds of thousands of people because of thought crimes? WTF are these people smoking? The Inquisition tortured people to extract confessions. They wanted to know if anyone else might be heretics or were skiving off of their Catholic duties. They used waterboarding, the rack, and in certain times and places, things worse than that. The Spanish Inquisition, which is probably the most well known thanks to Monty Python's Flying Circus, was apparently renowned for their creative torturing of prisoners. But they weren't the only Inquisition. There were plenty of others that operated all over Europe from the mid-13th century when it was founded to combat Catharism in the Languedoc to the 19th century. In fact, the Holy Office of the Inquisition still exists to this day in Catholicism, albeit under a different name, The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

When someone wouldn't give in under torture and condemn other people, and renounce any thoughts that they had that were contrary to the "good" teachings of the Catholic church, they were turned over to the secular arm of the government and burned at the stake, or in certain other times and places drawn and quartered, dragged by horses and/or hanged. Sometimes if the "crime" was a small one, they were given penance, and if they relapsed into their heresy, they didn't get a third chance. The second trial was a certain death sentence. And this stupid bastard doesn't want to condemn any of that, indeed, it seems that he wasn't keen on telling the interviewer what he really thought about it since he didn't want to comment on it. I wonder why? Could it be because he fancies doing that sort of thing to people?