What progress we are making...

A hundred years ago, if you had told your average American that black people would have equal rights someday, they would have thought you quite mad. And if you had told them that a black man would be elected President of the United States, they'd have had you committed to a mental asylum for being completely off your rocker.

I hope that someday, whether it be a hundred years from now, or a thousand, that people look back on this age and consider it as barbaric as we consider the Medieval period. I hope that someday all people really are treated equally, and that there is no more hunger or homelessness in this world. It's a nice dream isn't it?

"What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books." --Sigmund Freud

The Double Standard

I'm sure that by now you all have heard about the shooting at Fort Hood here in Texas. It's a tragic thing, so many people killed for no good reason. It's really sad. What's also sad is some of the comments left on various news articles. Instead of offering the families of those who were slain their condolences, the racists are out in force and the anti-Muslim sentiment is oozing forth. The shooter is apparently of Jordanian descent and his name is of Arabic origin.

Whether or not he did what he did because of his religious beliefs (which I do doubt at this moment), why does everyone blame Islam? What truly would be irony is if he turns out to be a fundamentalist Christian evangelist, but I do digress. You see, crazy doesn't discriminate. He didn't open fire on those people because of religion, even if he claims that is the reason. Rather he did it because he's crazy. Period. Crazy. Nothing else.

But you say, the Koran is full of violence. Then I dare you to read the Bible. The Bible too has commandments to kill non-believers, witches, idolaters, homosexuals, etc. But when some crazy Christian kills someone, even when they claim their religion made them do it, we don't see people condemning Christianity.

Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Ex 22:18

And the man that committeth adultery with [another] man's wife, [even he] that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. Lev 20:10 (Man, all the cheating Republicans better watch out!)

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood [shall be] upon them. Lev 20:13

A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood [shall be] upon them. Lev 20:27

That is of course not counting all the smiting that "god" does, or ordering the killing of a man for gathering sticks on the sabbath (Num 15:32-35) or the ordering of the ancient Israelites to keep all the virgins for themselves after slaughtering an entire town (Num 31:17). However, "god" appears to change his mind by Deu 5:17 by saying "Thou shalt not kill" but forgets all about it by Deu 13:6,

If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which [is] as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; [Namely], of the gods of the people which [are] round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the [one] end of the earth even unto the [other] end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Deu 13:6-10

The Bible is full of genocide, of "god" ordering the ancient Israelites to kill their neighbors and take their land. Of ordering them to kill unbelievers. During the Medieval period, western Europeans took all of this to heart, and murdered millions because of it, and that's not counting the crusades in the Middle East.

On that note, do you want to know why the Middle East is in the state it's in today? Because Medieval Christians invaded one of the most enlightened civilizations on earth and reduced it to ashes, and the British came along and finished it off in the 19th and early 20th century. Of course, they fucked up Africa too, so go figure.

The Arabs gave us the number zero, algebra, optics, and a myriad of other things prior to the invasion by a bunch of barbaric western Europeans. If you were a female in the Middle Ages, it would have been best for you to have been born in the Muslim world. During the Medieval period, women in the Middle East had rights that the women in western Europe did not have. Such as the right to testify in court, hold property and initiate divorce. And this history is buried here in the west, glossed over by people who would rather forget that our ancestors were a bunch of asshats.

Recommended reading: The Crusades through Arab Eyes

Torture Hannity for Charity

Hey, that kinda rhymes! I have to put my two cents in on this. Hannity knows nothing. Waterboarding has always been considered torture, as far back as the middle ages where the Inquisition used it because it didn't draw blood. He has no idea. I'm all for this. If I had the money, I'd give money to charity for each second he lasts. I'm wagering he wouldn't last more than a minute.

Thanks to the Progressive Puppy.

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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?